


Intergalactic

by darkdropout



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Angst, Dubious Science, Loss of Parent(s), M/M, Minor Character Death, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 20:25:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 25,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7906393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkdropout/pseuds/darkdropout
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years ago, Nino was left behind on Earth. Now that he's finally joined his crew in space, things should be back on track. But nothing is ever that easy.</p><p>A slightly epic AU romance in which Arashi are part of an intergalactic space crew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This giant fic is COMPLETE! It took me two years to finish it - a ridiculous story inspired by a b-side track and Ohno Satoshi's neck sweat. This was originally posted as it was being written on LJ, so apologies for any inconsistencies that might arise from not totally planning things ahead. To be fair, this was really just supposed to be a drabble at the start! Thank you to all my lovely friends who supported me while I tortured them with this unfinished monster and some particularly painful cliffhangers! NOW IT'S FINISHED!!! HOPE YOU ENJOY!!! <3

 

*~Dance in the starship　終わらないparty　このままGo to Intergalactic~*

 

The crew is waiting for Nino as he disembarks, set in stern formation, backs straight and feet together.  
  
"Captain," Nino salutes, sick bag still in hand. "Reporting for duty."  
  
Ohno Satoshi nods curtly in response. Whatever kind of reunion Nino imagined, it is not this. Ohno looks older, colder, with a fierceness that Nino doesn't remember having ever seen back on Earth. His body is lean as it's always been, but hard and sharp around the edges where it had once been soft and boyish.  
  
Nino does not know him and Ohno acts as if he feels the same.  
  
There is a barely suppressed sniffle and Nino's attention snaps to the back of the group where Aiba Masaki is valiantly trying to hold back his tears, just like the last time Nino saw him. It's almost nostalgic.

Beside Aiba, Sakurai Sho is only barely more composed, his eyes practically bulging out of his skull as he looks Nino over from head to toe, obviously trying to assess Nino's health and well-being from a distance.  
  
On Ohno's other side, there is a tall, well-styled man. Nino almost doesn't recognize him - until he grins, revealing a set of large, enthusiastic teeth. Matsumoto Jun is all grown up.

Aiba is the first to break rank. "Nino!" he whoops, rushing forward and nearly bowling Nino over as he wraps his arms around him in a crushing hug. Nino keeps a tight hold on his sick bag with one hand, while the other whacks hard and repeatedly at Aiba's back in self-defense.

"Aiba-kun, that's enough. You're going to snap him in half!" Sho scolds, although instead of pulling Aiba off he only piles in on top of them in a group hug.

"Disgusting," Jun says warmly, stepping forward to smack both of them on the back of the head. He makes eye contact with the sliver of Nino's eye that is not obscured by this over-emotional reunion.

"I'm back," Nino mumbles to him through Aiba's hair.

"Welcome back." Jun puts two fingers together and taps them against his forehead in a familiar gesture - it's Nino's trademark salute and it's been years since Nino's done it himself, but seeing it means he's finally home.

Eventually Aiba lets go, pushing Sho backwards, until the two of them are an appropriate distance away from Nino's face. "Nino, you made it! We've been waiting!" he says happily, eyes still wet.

"How are you? Are you hungry?" Sho cuts in, eagerly. "We can have them make something for you. I can go tell them now. What do you want? You look like you haven't eaten."

"I'm not hungry," Nino answers weakly, his stomach lurching at the thought. He holds up his sick bag. "Is there somewhere I can put this?"

All three of them wrinkle their noses.

"Maybe we should take you to your room," says Jun, with mild disdain.

Aiba nods in agreement. "Let's ask, Captain! Captain - " He turns back towards Ohno, towards where Ohno had remained standing, apart from the rest of them, since Nino's entrance. "Oh."

Ohno is no longer there.

Nino catches an anxious glance pass between Sho and Jun and he decides to ignore it. There are more important things to deal with first.  
  
"A room would be good," he says. "Preferably with a bed."

Aiba's smile is as electric as Nino remembered it being, maybe even more electric, as he replies, "How about _bunk beds_?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Aren't we old enough to have our own rooms now?" Nino gripes as they enter the cabin and he comes face to face with the promised sleeping arrangements. Suddenly he's flashing back to the first week of junior training camp and a 14-year-old Aiba in an over-sized junior cadet outfit, graciously asking Nino if he wants the top bunk.  
  
"We are," Aiba says. He doesn’t ask Nino his preference this time as he throws Nino’s luggage into the bottom bed, and Nino is thankful. "We do. We used to. But after Toma-kun – “  
  
Aiba stops, glancing at Nino nervously. He swallows once, then continues. "We didn't think you'd want to sleep in there."  
  
Nino just nods. It's true, he wouldn't have wanted to sleep there.  
  
Aiba is silent and Nino takes the opportunity to search the room for electrical outlets.  
  
“I know you’re tired,” says Aiba after a while, voice hopeful. “But come have dinner with us. The three of us always eat together and Sho-chan has been planning the menu for weeks. It’s all your favorite things!”  
  
“The three of you?” Nino asks warily.  
  
Aiba looks a bit sheepish. “Captain...he doesn’t eat with us anymore. He mostly stays in his quarters actually, when he’s off duty.”  
  
“Oh,” Nino says.  
  
“But!" says Aiba, rallying himself with a bright smile. “I’m sure he’ll show up for your welcome back dinner!”  
  
*  
  
Ohno doesn’t show up, but no one mentions it.  
  
Dinner is cheerful affair and Nino is surprised at how easily things fall back into place. The last time they saw each other, Nino had watched his crew walk away from him, watched them leave him behind. And for the first two years after they left, he promised himself not to think of them again. But the more time had past, the more he had found himself remembering, reminiscing, and wondering. Still, when he'd been called up to re-join them, he hadn't been sure he could do it. He hadn't been sure he wanted to. Now that he's here, he knows he made the right decision. It's like no time has passed at all.  
  
Halfway through the meal, Sho excuses himself holding a plate of food. “I’ll be back,” he says as Nino continues to fill Jun and Aiba in on the latest popular manga back on Earth. Sho returns empty handed a few minutes later, and when Jun and Aiba look to him, he shakes his head.   
  
In Nino’s direction, for Nino’s benefit, he plasters on a carefree smile.   
  
Nino lets him.  
  
*  
  
“Sho-chan takes Captain his meals?” Nino asks later from his nest in the bottom bunk.  
  
“Mm.” The bed creaks as Aiba shifts above him. “He wasn’t eating for a while, so Sho-chan does his best to make sure he does.”  
  
Nino doesn’t ask any more. He assumes Aiba has fallen asleep, until he speaks again.  
  
“It’s good you’re here," he says. "It’s good for Captain. Since Toma – since the accident, he’s been different. He needs you.”  
  
There's a pause and when Aiba speaks again, his voice is thick with emotion.

“We all need you.”  



	3. Chapter 3

_Nino remembers the night before they left._  
  
_"You’ll come join us soon right?" Ohno asks him. He reaches out to brush the pendant hanging on a gold chain around Nino’s neck and for a moment it seems to light up with his touch - for a moment, Nino’s not entirely sure that it doesn’t. Sometimes it feels like Ohno can light anything up, even the dark places in Nino’s heart, dark places that are growing darker with each passing minute that brings them closer to morning._  
  
_"Yes," Nino lies. He burrows further into the creases of the pillow he’s half-hid his face into, to block out Ohno’s light. "As soon as I can."_  
  
_"Nino - I -" Ohno starts, but Nino knows what he’s going to say and he doesn’t want to hear it. Not right now._  
  
_"Go to sleep already," he interrupts, with as much of his usual teasing tone as he can muster. "You have a long trip tomorrow."_  
  
_Ohno hesitates, but then nods. He shifts a little closer, and the pendant around his own neck, the matching pendant to Nino’s own, glitters on its silver chain against his skin as he lets his eyes fall shut. Nino closes his eyes too, if only to block out the sight of it._  
  
_Neither of them sleep._  
  
_*_  
  
_The next morning, Nino helps Ohno get dressed in his regulation captain’s uniform, fusses over the length of his cuffs and the straightness of his tie in a way that wills time to slow down, to stop._

  
 _It doesn’t._  
  
_As a former crew member, Nino is allowed out onto the launch pad, and he smiles bravely as Ohno walks up the gangplank in front of the rest of his crew. Aiba is crying, silent tears that he does not bother wiping away streaming down his cheeks. Sho’s face is beet red and Nino knows he’s only just able to keep himself composed, while behind him Jun’s eyebrows are arched to their fullest level of anxiety, though the rest of his baby face remains startlingly stoic. Only Toma seems collected and he salutes Nino as he holds up the rear._  
  
_(Earlier he’d sought Nino out and shaken his hand firmly._  
  
_“Good luck,” Nino had said to him then, and meant it. If Nino had to be replaced, he’s glad that it’s with Toma. “I’m counting on you to take care of these idiots for me.”_  
  
_Toma had grinned in response, immeasurably likeable. “Yes, sir. I’ll keep a detailed report of their escapades for your perusal on our return.”_  
  
_"I’ll hold you to that," Nino had replied, already reassured.)_  
  
_At the top of the gangplank, the five of them turn as one, and give a formal salute, the ground crew saluting back in kind. Nino can feel Ohno’s gaze on him, but he keeps his head down until he hears the sound of the ship doors shutting, then locking into place._  
  
_He doesn’t stay to watch the take-off._  
  
_Later, he wonders how long it will take Ohno to find the pendant tucked into the fold of his shirt cuff, the one that matches the pendant still hanging around Ohno’s neck. He hopes, at least, it stays hidden until the ship reaches past the point of return._


	4. Chapter 4

On the third day after Nino’s arrival, an alert pops up on the crew’s information dash.  
  
“Customs,” Sho says, tapping the message into Nino’s communications screen. “They say they’ve approved your additional items.”  
  
Aiba nearly jumps from his chair. “Care packages?” he asks, puppishly.  
  
“Shh,” says Nino, rolling his eyes as Aiba’s excitement catches fire down the line – Sho’s eyes have grown round with hopefulness and even Jun is looking in their direction, suddenly attentive. “It was supposed to be a surprise you idiot!”  
  
“For us? From our families?” Jun asks, and although he tries to keep the eagerness from his voice, he can’t.  
  
Nino stands and smacks Aiba lightly on the back of the head when he tries to follow. “Let me go get them and then you’ll see for yourself.”  
  
It takes Nino an hour to get to the customs office and back. It's a trek to get there through the still unfamiliar city-sized space station and he gets lost down a dead-end side street three times before he finally asks for directions to the Administrative District from another crew's hub. When he finally wanders back into his own sector, packages in hand, Aiba, Sho and Jun are all waiting at the entrance, without even the pretense of causality. Although Nino’s planned to draw this whole thing out for his amusement, he caves before he’s even through the front door.  
  
“This one is for Ohno,” he say a few minutes later, holding out the largest package, almost as big as Nino himself.  It’s the only one that’s left in his possession now, the others currently scattered around the room with their respective owners in various states of frenzy.  
  
“I can take it to him later,” Sho offers, barely looking in Nino’s direction as he rips into a pre-packaged shortcake (“I don’t know why I bother wrapping it up so nicely,” Sho’s sister had told Nino when he’d stopped by to retrieve it from her. “Knowing Sho-nii, the whole thing will disappear in seconds!”)  
  
“No,” Nino says, unheard over Aiba’s sudden yelp of joy as the container he’s opened begins to bubble up with white smoke.  “I’ll take it to him.”  
  
*  
  
Nino knocks on the door to the captain’s quarters with all the confidence he does not feel.  
  
When there is no answer, he hesitates. He knows that Ohno is inside if only because there is nowhere else that he could be.  
  
The knob turns easily in Nino’s hand and the door swings open with only the slightest of pushes. The room he steps into is dark, and sparsely furnished, which only helps to emphasize that it is over twice the size of the cabin Nino and Aiba now share.  
  
As Nino’s eyes adjust to the dimness, he notices the couch pushed awkwardly into the middle of the room. He quickly takes another step forward for a better look over the side of its plush back, and sure enough, there is Ohno, spread out full length on the other side.  
  
At first, Nino thinks that Ohno is asleep. But as Nino continues to move towards him, he can see that Ohno's eyes are open, glistening black as he stares unblinkingly up at the ceiling.  
  
Nino follows his gaze and can't help but smile at the poster of a school of fish pinned above Ohno's head. Even in space, Ohno is forever a fisherman.  
  
“Captain,” Nino says when Ohno does not seem to register his entrance. “Your mother asked me to deliver this to you.”  
  
Ohno springs to life. He shoots upwards and as he does so Nino catches a glint of something metallic - a chain - from beneath his unbuttoned collar.  
  
“My mother?” Ohno repeats, and his voice is rough and throaty enough to make Nino wonders how long its been since he's last spoken.  
  
Nino holds out the package and Ohno takes it. But unlike the others, he doesn't tear into it right away. Instead he holds it carefully in his lap. It's so big that it almost blocks him entirely from view, but Nino can still see that the expression on his face is that of complete disbelief.  
  
"From mama," he mumbles to himself, pressing his fingers to the hand-written label.  
  
While Ohno's distracted, Nino chances another look at his neckline, but the chain, if there ever was one, is now hidden from view.  
  
Wishful thinking, Nino tells himself. He wouldn't. Not anymore.  
  
But if he did, if it was, what color - ?  
  
"Thank you, Nino," Ohno says quietly, interrupting Nino's thoughts.  
  
It’s the first time Nino has heard Ohno say his name in five years.  
  
Ohno looks up at him then, and smiles. The smile is small, tired, but its enough - it feels a little bit like lightning, striking right through Nino's heart.  
  
“No problem,” Nino answers, and he's relieved that his voice sounds so steady, but Ohno's attention is on his package again and Nino takes this as his cue to leave.  
  
He already has the door open when Ohno calls out to him.  
  
“Nino!"  
  
Nino turns back to find Ohno leaning towards him over the back of the couch. The light from the hallway has infiltrated the room, and it illuminates Ohno's face, makes Ohno's eyes bright with some unreadable emotion. There was a time when there was no emotion of Ohno's that Nino did not know, but he tries not to think of that now.  
  
“Nino,” he says again. He pauses and in that pause there are an infinite number of things he could say. Nino holds his breath as he waits to hear them, all of them, any of them.  
  
“Welcome back," says Ohno.  
  
“Thanks,” Nino says, both disappointed and relieved. “It’s good to be home.”  
  
Ohno nods and looks away. He begins to open his package.  
  
*  
  
As Nino closes the door behind him, he tries to keep himself together.  
  
The chain is silver.


	5. Chapter 5

_"_ That's _him?" Nino asks, utterly incredulous as he strains to catch a glimpse of the boy across the crowded room - the one who has spent all morning declining to participate in their mandatory agility drills in favor of leaning against the wall and calming digging his nose._

_"Mm," says Aiba with confidence. "That's what Jun-kun said. And Jun-kun wouldn't joke about that!"_

_"Not the one next to him? The tiny one?" Nino asks again, sure he must have misunderstood._

_"You're the tiny one, too!" Aiba laughs happily, patting Nino roughly on the head. "And that's Sho-chan. Jun-kun says his dad is a member of the Intergalactic Ministry. So he can't be!"_

_"_ That guy _?" Nino still can't believe it - he doesn't think he's ever seen someone so completely human in his life. It can't be true. "I'm going to ask him."_

_Aiba perks up excitedly. "Really?"_

_Nino doesn't answer. He's already pushing his way through the sea of Junior Cadets until he's reached the other side of the room. He comes to stop in front of the boy in question, who is still picking his nose, even as he catches Nino's eye._

_"Are you an alien?" Nino blurts out, with absolutely no formality or regard for polite introduction._

_Around them, there's a sudden, chilling hush, which ripples out through the until now rowdy crowd. Nino has obviously asked a question that every Cadet has been waiting to ask, and he can sense them all collectively leaning in to hear the answer. He feels himself straightening with something like pride (and maybe also the littlest bit of embarrassment) for being the first to come out and say it._  
  
The boy himself has absolutely no reaction.

_"Satoshi-kun," interrupts the tiny boy beside them that Aiba had identified as Sho-kun, his voice filled with obvious concern. "You don't have to answer that - "_

_"Half," the boy says, dropping his finger from his nose._

_"Half?" repeats Nino, startled. He had been sure the answer would be no._ _Of course it would be no._ _But half?_

_"My mama is from Earth," the boy says, easily._

_"Oh."_

_There's a long pause where the two of them stare at each other in silence._  
  
Finally, Nino says, "I'm Nino."

_"Hi Nino. I'm Ohno." He smiles and it feels a little bit like lightning, striking right through Nino's heart._

Love _, Nino thinks, then tries his best to shake it off._

_"Oh-chan, do you want to sit with us at lunch today?"_


	6. Chapter 6

The next evening during dinner, Sho is late getting back from his delivery to Ohno’s cabin. Usually it takes him less than half an hour to get there, wheedle Ohno into a few bites of food, and get back. But tonight the minutes tick by and by until even Nino can't ignore that something strange is going on.  
  
When Sho finally returns, he looks dazed, and the plate he is holding is, for the first time ever, empty.  
  
“What took you so long?” Jun asks, his irritation radiating out from under the giant hand-knit sweater he's wearing care of his mother's package. He's been checking his communications app every few minutes since Sho left and now he snaps the device shut menacingly, rousing Sho from his stupor.  
  
“He was talking to me,” Sho says, bewildered. He puts the empty plate down on the table and takes his seat heavily.  
  
“Talking?” asks Aiba, curiously. “About what?”  
  
Sho shakes his head as if he's trying to wake himself from a dream. “He asked if I remembered the day he got promoted to the Leadership Academy. And then if I remembered that wall behind the base that looked out towards the city?”  
  
There's a clatter from the end of the table and Nino nods a sheepish apology as he bends down to retreive the bowl he's just dropped onto the floor.  
  
“Why would he be talking about that?” asks Jun, obviously annoyed. “He hasn’t spoken to us in three months and _that’s_ what he wants to talk about?”  
  
Sho shrugs. “I don’t know, I couldn’t follow it all, but he was talking and he was eating, and that’s what we’ve been waiting for isn’t it?”  
  
“I suppose,” Jun grumbles.  
  
“Matsujun, it’s good news!” Aiba says, patting Jun on his sweater-ed shoulder. “Our captain is back!”  
  
“May I be excused?” says Nino, already standing up from his seat.  
  
He doesn't wait for a response. The others are too distracted to notice him anyway, so he makes his exit quickly before they do  – before they can hear the thunderous way his heart is beating in his chest.  
  
Ohno isn’t the only one who thinks a lot about that wall.  
  
_*_  
  
_“Captain Oh-chan~” Nino teases, but Ohno is not laughing._  
  
_Nino knocks their knees together as they sit on the high wall outside the Cadet base, looking out over into the vast empty fields that somehow lead back to civilization, to Tokyo, to their homes. It’s Friday afternoon, which means its almost the weekend. Tomorrow morning they will be allowed their once-a-month passes to leave the base and visit their families. Nino has spent all week dreaming of his mother’s umeboshi._  
  
_“You’re our first half-alien captain. Your mama will be so proud,” Nino says, feeling quite proud himself._  
  
_“Don’t wanna be,” Ohno pouts. “Wanna stay with you guys.”_  
  
_Nino smiles, and this time he knocks their elbows together. “You’ll miss me too much, huh?”_  
  
_“Mm,” hums Ohno, noncommittally._  
  
_Nino knocks their shoulders together. “You’ll miss us all, but you’ll miss me most, right?”_  
  
_“Mm,” Ohno says again. His face is turned towards the horizon, but Nino can still see that he’s frowning. Although it’s an honor to be one of the very few chosen for the elite Captains Apprenticeship, he can understand why Ohno is upset. Ohno is not here, has never been here, to be a leader._  
  
_Nino is upset too. A promotion to the Leadership Academy means a move to the other side of the city, far away from here, too far to visit on with a once-a-month weekend pass. Nino won’t see Ohno for a long time. But for Ohno's sake, he keeps smiling._  
  
_“Will you think about me every day~?” he asks, with only half-faked wistfulness. He’s run out of body parts to knock into Ohno, so instead he settles for touching the tips of his sneaker to the side of Ohno’s shoe and pushing._  
  
_They are sitting so close that when Ohno finally turns to him, the are almost nose to nose. Nino doesn’t have much time to be startled by it, because suddenly Ohno is leaning in even closer, and pressing their lips together._  
  
_The kiss that Ohno gives Nino is so soft, so gentle, that Nino feels as if he could shatter from it._  
  
_“I’ll miss you the most,” whispers Ohno when he pulls back. His eyes are alien dark and his brow is drawn together in an unsure wrinkle and Nino has been waiting for this moment since the day they met._  
  
_“Captain,” he says breathlessly. He pulls needily at Ohno’s collar, keeping him close in case he tries to move away, even though he doesn't, even though he won't._  
  
_“What took you so long?” Nino asks and pulls him in for another kiss._  
  
*  
  
Ohno's cabin is quiet behind its closed door, just as it always is. Nino curses himself under his breath. Just because Ohno says he thinks about that day doesn't mean anything. Just because Ohno says he thinks about that wall doesn't mean anything.  
  
But Nino had thought, had hoped, that just maybe it was a sign  –  
  
Stupid, Nino says to himself. Idiot. Had he been expecting Ohno to be standing here, waiting for him with open arms?  
  
Heavy-hearted, he's already turning to leave when there's a sound from inside the cabin. He shakes himself from his memories and, immediately, instinctively, steps closer. He presses his ear to the cold door.  
  
At first, he thinks he's imagining it. Nino's not used to all the sounds of the space station yet and for all he knows it could be the hum of the mainframe, or the hiss of the oxygen ducts, playing tricks on him.  
  
Still, as Nino listens, barely breathing, he's sure that's not it.  
  
Behind the closed door, Ohno is singing.


	7. Chapter 7

“Whatever you’re doing,” says Jun. “Keep doing it.”  
  
"What?” Nino looks around in confusion, but it’s still only the two of them sitting in the simulation module that Nino's been reacquainting himself with all week, so Jun must be talking to him.  
  
“You heard me,” Jun says, suddenly snappish. “Whatever you’re doing with Captain, keep doing it.”  
  
“I’m not doing anything,” says Nino, feeling uncharacteristically flustered. A moment ago, Jun had been happily discussing his successes in hooking his Famicom into the simulation system, and now his face is a glowering cloud. Nino has been trying to adjust to the mood swings of this grown-up Jun, but sometimes they still catch him off guard.  
  
“Sho-kun thinks it's the package from his mother that’s made the change. But I know it’s because of you," Jun explains, before Nino can even ask for one.  
  
"Oh," says Nino, not sure what else to say. Then he thinks of last night, of how he'd sat outside Ohno's cabin for an hour, listening to Ohno's voice on the other side of the door. “I heard him singing.”  
  
Jun’s thunderous expression softens a bit. “Maybe Aiba’s right,” he mutters, more to himself than to Nino. “Maybe we will get our Captain back.”  
  
He leans back in his chair, and gives a heavy sigh, runs a tense hand through his wavy hair. “We are all hurting over Toma. _All_ of us. But Captain most of all because he's the one who gave the order."  
  
Jun turns to face Nino and, again, his mood has changed as he says fiercely, “It was a good order. It was the right order. We all would have given it, even Toma himself. But – “  
  
He pauses, swallows, and now he looks so young, so insecure, just like the little, earnest Jun who left his home and family to follow his dreams of a space career, all those years ago.  
  
“Captain can’t forgive himself," he says, with almost more pain than Nino can bear to witness.  
  
Jun looks away, and Nino is selfishly relieved. He waits politely for Jun to collect himself. Jun has always been good at that, good at putting himself back together, even when they were young, and it doesn't take long before his back is straight again, eyes clear.  
  
“When did you get so mature, Jun-kun?” Nino says to him fondly. He resists the urge to reach out and muss Jun's hair for him, but only just. “And so tall.”  
  
Jun frowns, then smiles, then grins, all teeth. “The real question," he says, turning back to the console and restarting the mission run-through, "is why didn’t you get any taller?”  
  
Nino shrugs as the screens around him once again come to life. He readies himself at the controls. “Too much effort. Plus I'd have to buy new clothes.”  
  
When Jun laughs, the sound of it - so sweet and carefree, but so careful - cuts through Nino, right to his heart. Whatever he's doing, he decides, he'll keep doing it. For Jun's sake.  
  
For all of their sakes.


	8. Chapter 8

But Nino’s not sure what there is to keep doing when he’s done nothing at all. Ohno remains behind his closed door and Nino still has too much pride to knock it down without his permission.  
  
For a second night in a row, Sho comes back to them with an empty plate. But this time Ohno has been talking to him about fishing, about boats and harbors, the vast oceans back on earth, and all the things that Nino has never had interest in.  
  
Nino keeps his head down while Sho recounts it all and tries not to imagine that this, too, is a sign – a sign for Nino to leave Ohno alone.  
  
*  
  
They take Nino to see the ship.  
  
“We taught Toma-kun to use the same shorthand you used to use, and the same codes,” Sho explains as he leads Nino up the gangplank, Aiba and Jun right behind them.  
  
Jun huffs out a sardonic laugh. “We were sure he wouldn’t last long and you’d be up soon, so we didn’t make any changes.”

Sho nods in acquiescence. “Toma-kun didn’t seem to mind – “ he starts.  
  
“But he also didn't seem to think you’d show up any time soon,” Jun cuts in.  
  
Sho’s back stiffens a little, and Nino is reminded of his former temper, of a Sho of long ago that wouldn't have let Jun interrupt so much. But this Sho just takes a deep breath and steps back to let the rest of them pass through the main access.  
  
Nino comes to an unconscious stop in the ship’s entryway. He looks around and wills himself not to be overwhelmed by it all, by being here again after all this time. It feels like the walls are humming around him, the floor vibrating beneath his feet. It feels like he’s been here all along. It feels like he’s never left – or rather, that they never left, without him.  
  
Then Aiba runs into his back, knocking them both to the ground, and the moment is lost.  
  
“Sorry, Nino!” Aiba says, jamming his elbow into Nino’s spleen apologetically.  
  
Now, Nino decides, as he pushes Aiba off him with rough affection. Now it feels like he never left.  
  
*  
  
Toma’s space study looks like Nino’s old space study, if Nino’s old space study had been through a localized tsunami.  
  
“We left everything as it was. We thought you’d be the best one to go through it all,” says Sho quickly, bowing out of the room as Nino scowls.  
  
Nino is the best one to go through it all, but that doesn’t mean he wants to. Toma may have been a stand-up guy, but judging by the state of things, organization was not his strong point. Nino can’t imagine how Jun survived so many years stuck on a ship with him.  
  
Nino starts with the desk, sifting through piles of paperwork and stacks of electronic readings. When he pushes a data panel back into its socket, something clatters to the floor. Nino sulks to himself as he bends to pick it up.  
  
It’s a framed photo. A crew photo. Jun, Sho, Aiba, Ohno and Toma all smile brightly back up at him as they stand in front of the ship.  
  
Nino’s stomach twists unhappily. He places the photo gently back on the desk in the only empty spot he can find, this time face down.  
  
That is Nino’s limit for cleaning today. Closing the door firmly behind him, he makes his way out of the study and tries to navigate back to wherever Sho and the others might be. The entryway is in sight when a door to his left catches his eye.  
  
He stops.  
  
Above the door, written in stark gold lettering, it says: _Captain’s Deck_.  
  
Nino does not even hesitate.  
  
The Captain’s Deck, Nino is not surprised to find, is much like Ohno’s cabin. There is no clutter, no paperwork like in Nino’s own space study. There is barely anything at all. To one side of the deck is a large window, looking out on the main bay of the ship. In front of it, sits the Captain's chair.  
  
Nino walks over to it. “Long time no see,” he says. He runs his fingers along the high leather back, then, unceremoniously, takes a seat.  
  
It’s nostalgic, sitting here. Although he never made it into orbit, Nino spent enough time on this ship for it to feel like a lifetime, even if it was another lifetime all together. The Captain’s Deck, perhaps more than anywhere else, holds many happy memories for him.  
  
As Nino makes himself comfortable, he notices a picture frame leaning against the wall below the window. At first, it looks to be holding the same photo as the one in Toma’s collection of clutter. But Nino is curious enough to reach for it and as he picks it up, he can see that it's different.  
  
The photo is older and the crew is younger, still in front of the same ship, which here is freshly built. Jun, Sho, Aiba and Ohno are smiling just as brightly, but this time it isn't Toma standing with them.  
  
It’s Nino.  
  
Before Nino has a chance to process this discovery, a noise from the room behind him nearly knocks him from his seat. The photo drops to the floor as he whips around to find Ohno, standing quietly beside him. Nino wonders how long he’s been there.  
  
“You kept the old picture,” Nino says, pushing the words out although he can hardly hear it over the pounding of his heart.  
  
Ohno nods, a slight tilt of his head, but his mouth is tight with unhappiness. “You said you’d come as soon as you could.”  
  
It’s a leap in conversation, but Nino follows it. “I had to say that. If I didn’t, do you think that Aiba Masaki would have gotten on that ship without me?” he jokes half-heartedly.  
  
There’s a long pause and Nino starts to think that Ohno won’t speak again, until he asks, “How is your mother?”  
  
Nino’s smile is mirthless. “Better now. She died a month after you left.”  
  
Ohno looks like his heart is breaking. He takes a step backwards and turns his face, but Nino can see that his eyes are already blurred with tears. Nino had forgotten what a crybaby he is.  
  
“You could have come then,” Ohno says after a moment, his voice suspiciously thick. “We were waiting for you.”  
  
“I couldn’t.”  
  
Nino faces the window again, looking out over the empty ship below.  “They gave me a choice,” he explains. “Go now or don’t go at all.”  
  
He clears his throat, trying to keep hold of his own emotions. He is not, has never been, a crybaby like Ohno. “And I –“ He pauses, swallows, but continues. “I couldn’t leave her.”  
  
He glances over his shoulder to where Ohno is standing, and even from here he can see the tears dripping down Ohno's cheeks. He should feel grateful for Ohno's sympathy, but he doesn't. Instead he feels irritated by it, frustrated by it. Even if it's not Ohno's fault, it's still too little, too late.  
  
"The only reason I'm here is because Toma is dead."  
  
It comes out with more viciousness than Nino intends it to, but it's the truth and it feels good, after so many days of not saying it, to finally hear the words out loud.  
  
At first, there is nothing but silence. Then Ohno’s footsteps echo across the floor and suddenly he’s kneeling at Nino’s feet, touching Nino’s face. He leans forward and Nino leans forward too and they kiss, they’re kissing, desperate and too rough. Nino puts a hand in Ohno’s hair, pulls him closer, closer, and he can taste Ohno’s tears, but it doesn’t matter, nothing matters, only –  
  
“Captain?”  
  
The sound of Jun’s voice cuts through the room and breaks them apart. Ohno stands up quickly, wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his jacket.  
  
“He’s here,” Nino calls out. He rubs a hand over his face and leaves it there. He’s not entirely sure that his legs will hold him if he tries to stand so he doesn’t try. He stays where he is.  
  
Jun must take Nino’s words as a warning because he doesn’t call out again, doesn’t enter the room. It's quiet now, and Nino is thankful. It gives him a chance to breath.  
  
“Oh-chan,” he says, after a while.  
  
There is no answer. Nino uncovers his face, eyes sweeping across the room.  
  
Maybe he shouldn't be surprised that Ohno is already gone.

 


	9. Chapter 9

_When Nino’s mother gets sick, his life stops. When she dies, he thinks maybe the world will stop too, that it will end with her last breath._  
  
_It doesn’t._  
  
_Despite his superiors protests, Nino steps down from his space lieutenant position, demotes himself to office work instead. He moves out of the crew barracks and back into his mother’s empty house. He resigns himself to a life of solitude, a life of could-have-beens, but not of what-ifs._  
  
_Nino has never been one for what-ifs._  
  
_Once a week, Aiba’s mother sends her younger son over with a food delivery, appropriately worried that Nino won’t, and doesn’t, feed himself regularly (“Mom says heat it up for 5 minutes and I’ll be back later for the empty bowl,” says Yusuke when Nino opens the door to him each time. “Mom says she’ll know if you didn’t eat it.”) Once a month, Nino is required to make an in-person appearance at the Aiba restaurant to show that he is still alive. Nino never misses these visits. He tells himself he does it for Aiba's mother, that he is the kind of guy who is nice enough to humor her and play the surrogate while her son is floating around somewhere else in the universe, too far away to be fussed over. He has no doubt that Aiba would do the same thing for Nino’s mother, had their places been reversed, had things been different. But things aren’t different, so on the last Thursday of every month, Nino shows up dutifully – for Aiba’s mother._  
  
_Time continues to pass, although it’s moving slower all the time. There is a girl in the mechanics department that takes a liking to him. She’s attractive and funny, the type you could marry. The type Nino could take home to his mother, if he still had one. He takes her on a date instead, and when she kisses him at the end of the night, he feels nothing at all. He doesn’t see her again._  
  
_Life outside of work is bearable, but sometimes too quiet. Nino has spent most of his life sharing a cramped space with at least one other warm body. Now, on his own, he fills the house with televisions, gaming consoles, stereos and instruments. From the moment he arrives home, he puts any of them, all of them, to use. He does whatever he has to the chase away the silence._  
  
_Some nights, Nino goes up to the roof of his apartment building to smoke. It's a bad habit, and there was a time he thought of quitting, but there's no reason to now. So he goes to the roof and smokes one cigarette, sometimes two. He looks out at the city, trying not to remember a time when it was far away, when he was far away._  
  
_Even at night, it's bright here, too bright to see the stars._  
  
_Nino never looks up to see them anyway._  
  
*  
  
Ohno stands awkwardly near the head of the table.  
  
His cap is crumpled in his hands and his hair is a matted mess. In the harsh lighting of the dinning room, the dark circles under his eyes are even darker than usual. He looks a little lost as the rest of them stare up at him in disbelief.  
  
There is no place set for him anymore, and after the initial shock wears off, Sho nearly falls out of his chair in his eagerness to find Ohno a bowl and a plate.  
  
When Ohno sits down, Aiba leans across the table, grinning ear to ear as he holds his hand up in front of Jun. Jun tries to scowl, but can't.  
  
He lifts his hand and high-fives Aiba.  
  
At the head of the table, Ohno laughs.  



	10. Chapter 10

_The pendants are a joke at first._  
  
_They buy them together on the way home from one of the bi-annual off-base cadet outings. There’s a stall outside of the bus station, the kind that sells small gifts and mementos to tourists who, on the way home from their city vacation, realize they've forgotten to remember those they're going home to. None of the other cadets take any interest in it, most of them too depressed with the prospect of going home to nothing but their empty bunks and those never-ending 5am wakeup calls._  
  
_But Ohno and Nino are always interested, and they spend a long time there, standing in front of the stall side by side, knocking shoulders as they consider each trinket with put-on seriousness._  
  
_Nino is the one to notice them first – the two matching pendants that together seem to hold the whole universe inside them. When he points them out, Ohno reaches out to pick one up, then drops it again when the swirling galaxies inside it start to move in the palm of his hand._  
  
_“Alien-made,” says the little, old woman sitting behind the stall. She’s been watching them quietly since their arrival, and now she gives them an almost toothless smile. “¥900 each.”_  
  
_Nino balks a little, but he’s already pulling Ohno’s wallet out of the back pocket of his jumpsuit._  
  
_*_  
  
_They wear them around for a while, but like most things they are soon forgotten, in the bottom of a desk, in the back of a drawer. It’s not until the day before Ohno leaves for the Leadership Academy that they surface again._  
  
_Nino is lounging on Ohno’s bunk, one of Jun's manga open in front of him while he surreptitiously watches Ohno pack. When Ohno holds up the gold chain, Nino stops pretending he isn't looking. He sits up and the manga drops unnoticed to the floor._  
  
_“You still have it?” he asks, a grin stretching across his face._  
  
_Ohno shrugs. "I guess so."_  
  
_The galaxies swim around inside their metal confines as he holds it out. Nino takes it from him and, just as always, the movement stops, the swirling stars and planets instantly frozen in suspension again with the touch of Nino's skin._  
  
_Ohno goes back to his packing. Nino studies the pendant for a while, bemused. Then without a word, he gets up from the bunk and leaves the room. A few minutes later, he returns, swinging his own pendant from its silver chain._  
  
_Ohno is grinning this time. “You have it too!” he says, and for once, Nino does not tease him about his knack for stating the obvious._  
  
_“Let’s trade,” says Nino. He doesn’t wait for an answer, steps forward and loops the silver chain around Ohno’s neck, pushing and pulling at him until he turns to let Nino click the clasp shut in the back. “Now me.”_  
  
_He holds out Ohno’s gold chain, and Ohno takes it. He places it gently around Nino’s neck and Nino wiggles impatiently in place for the hours it seems to take him to carefully shut the clasp._  
  
_“Now you won’t forget me,” Nino says when he's finally finished. He reaches out to touch his pendant – Ohno’s pendant – admiring it as it rests against the front of Ohno’s shirt._  
  
_He starts to pull his hand away when Ohno catches his wrist._  
  
_“I wouldn’t,” Ohno says, so quietly that Nino finds himself leaning in to hear the words as they leave Ohno’s lips. “I won’t.”_  
  
_"Gross," Nino laughs, but it’s a little shaky, maybe a little besotted. “Captains aren’t supposed to be so sentimental, are they?”_  
  
_“Maybe,” Ohno smiles and he’s so close now that Nino can already taste it. “So I guess I won’t be a very good one.”_  
  
  
  
_They kiss, and although neither of them can see it, for a moment, their pendants fill up with the light of a thousand stars._


	11. Chapter 11

After dinner, Nino does not wait to be asked back to Ohno’s room. Ohno doesn’t stop him, doesn’t even look back, as Nino follows him all the way down the hall. When he pauses in front of his cabin, Nino keeps going, takes two more steps to close the remaining space between them.  
  
They are kissing even before they are all the way through the door.  
  
“I missed you the most,” Nino says, minutes later, when he’s pulled away just enough to breath, only enough to breath.  
  
Ohno doesn’t answer him, presses their lips together, again, and again, until Nino feels dizzy with it. The door shuts loudly into place behind them and the sound of it makes Nino feel more desperate, desperate for more.  
  
It's been so long, all the missed time stretched out like centuries, taut between them, before snapping back to here, to now.  
  
Ohno’s jacket is already open and Nino steps back enough to push it roughly off his shoulders, even as Ohno protests, trying to pull Nino back towards him. Nino doesn’t let him. He starts on Ohno’s shirt, and he has it half unbuttoned before he sees the chain.  
  
“Nino?” says Ohno, voice a little rough, a little worried, as the color drains from Nino’s face.  
  
“You have both,” Nino says.  
  
He pulls the chain towards him and two identical pendants clink against each other.  
  
He looks back up at Ohno. Ohno's hair is wild and his mouth is bruised, but his eyes are shaded with apprehension.  
  
“When did you find it?” Nino asks him. “Mine, I mean.”  
  
Ohno swallows. “I knew you put it there in the first place. I didn’t know why. Not at first.”  
  
Nino is feeling light headed again, but this time it’s not from a lack of oxygen. “And the chain –?“  
  
“Oh,” says Ohno. “I have it.”  
  
He moves to the far side of the room, and again Nino follows. There's a wooden chest pushed back against the wall. When Ohno opens the lid, Nino moves forward to look. At first he thinks it's empty, but then Ohno is leaning in and Nino starts to make out the few items inside. They look familiar. And they should, since every one of them used to belong to him.  
  
A deck of playing cards he lost ten years ago. A pile of notes scribbled in his own boyish handwriting. One of his old t-shirts. All there, tucked carefully into the very bottom of the chest.  
  
Ohno pushes these lightly aside, reaching underneath them to produce a small blue box. He opens it and there is the gold chain.  
  
As Nino watches dumbly, Ohno reaches back to unhook the clasp of his own necklace. He slides one pendant off of it and strings it onto the gold chain. When he’s finished, he holds it out to Nino.  
  
Nino takes it with an unsteady hand.  
  
“I told you I wouldn’t forget,” Ohno says, simply.  
  
Nino feels the wetness on his face before he recognizes it. He’s crying - big, hot tears that roll down his face and begin to soak through the front of his shirt. He feels his knees give way beneath him, feels himself hit the floor.  
  
“They told me I’d never see any of you again,” Nino hears himself saying, between sobs.  
  
The tears keep coming, won't stop coming, and he doesn't know when he’s ever cried like this. Maybe he’s never cried like this. Not when the ship took off without him, not even when his mother died. He feels like a child again, helpless and ashamed, weak with emotion. Ohno is already beside him, trying to wipe his tears away even as they continue to fall and Nino doesn't have the strength to push him away.  
  
“They gave me a choice, to stay or to go," he's saying, and he can't stop talking, just like he can't stop crying. "And then they said, ‘Do you understand that if your crew leaves without you, you may not see them again in your lifetime?’”  
  
Nino can feel the pendant, still warm from Ohno's skin, crushed painfully into the palm of his hand. It feels heavy, so heavy, but he can't let it go, not again.  
  
He holds on to it tighter. “And it wasn’t fair. It wasn't fair choosing between my mother or you –“  
  
“Nino,” Ohno says. His fingers curl gently over Nino's clenched fist, trying to ease his grip. “It was the right choice. You made the right choice."  
  
There's blood on his hand, Nino realizes, as Ohno tries again to push his fingers apart. His hand is bleeding, but he doesn't really care. To Ohno, he asks, “The choice you would have made?”  
  
Ohno hesitates, just a flicker of a moment, the space of one heartbeat that Nino counts as it matches up with his own.  
  
“I think so,” he answers quietly, but his fingers are shaking against Nino’s, like maybe he’s not so sure.  
  
Nino lets his hand fall open. The pendant goes tumbling towards the ground before Ohno catches it. He puts it down on the floor beside them. Nino's palm is bloody from the indent of his fingernails and Ohno quickly tugs his half-open shirt the rest of the way off, pressing the material into Nino's hand.  
  
“I should have told you,” Nino says.  
  
Ohno shakes his head, holding on to Nino with both hands now, his grip getting tighter and tighter as he speaks. “You shouldn’t have. I wouldn’t have gotten on that ship without you.”  
  
Nino laughs, wetly. “Idiot. I knew you wouldn’t.”  
  
“That’s why you couldn’t tell me.” Ohno is smiling now, and if his cheeks are also damp with tears, Nino decides not to hold it against him this time.  
  
He sniffs loudly, rubs at his nose with the shirt sleeve of his free hand. “Forgive me?” he says, because it's already too late to save his dignity, and he needs to hear the answer, needs to know.  
  
"Yes," Ohno says and this time there is no hesitation. He's shirtless now, face wet and hair still a disheveled mess, and Nino laughs again.  
  
Ohno laughs, too. “Don’t do it again,” he chides.  
  
He squeezes painfully hard on Nino's hand, in warning, and Nino doesn't pull away.  
  
"I wouldn't," Nino agrees. "I won't."  
  
***  
  
END PART ONE.

  
  
_*~Ride on the starship_ _止まらない_ _journey_ _誰_ _もが_ _Go to Intergalactic~*_

  
  
  
  
BEGIN PART TWO.  
  
***  
  
Nino wakes up to the resounding bangs of someone's fist against metal and wood. When he opens his eyes, the door to Ohno's cabin is already swinging wide open, as the light from the hallway sweeps in to fill the room.  
  
Sho stands at the threshold, with the face of a man possessed. Even from across the room, Nino can see how pale he is, can see that he's covered in a dull sheen of sweat. If he's surprised by Nino's presence in Ohno's bed, he shows no trace of it. He looks right past Nino, to Ohno, who is only now slowly sitting up. He's still rubbing the sleep from his eyes when Sho speaks.  
  
"Captain," Sho says, and his voice sends a cold thrill down Nino's spine. "It's the Intergalactic CC. We've been called up for another mission."


	12. PART TWO

_There is quite some pomp and circumstance every year for the return to base of the Leadership Academy graduates, but this year the well-wishers and onlookers are out in record numbers._  
  
_Aiba helps Nino push through the crowd and the two of them get to the front just as the newly ranked Captains take their places on the stage._  
  
_As usual, there are seven graduates, roughly half the number of those initially sent on the Captains Apprenticeship, the other half having been weeded out during the two year long intensive program._  
  
_“There he is!” Aiba says, tall enough to see over the last few rows of people between them and the stage._  
  
_He points and Nino pushes up on the toes of his sneakers, grabbing unabashedly on to Aiba’s shoulder to give himself a boost._  
  
_Ohno is standing at the end of the line, farthest away from them. He looks different since the last time Nino saw him in person – six months ago now, when their weekend passes had matched up with Ohno’s leave for his 22nd birthday. He stands at attention in full dress in a new uniform, well-pressed and adorned with a striking number of badges and commendation pins along with the epaulets of his new rank. Underneath the ceremonial Captain’s hat, his expression is as serious and poised as Nino has ever seen._  
  
_Nino is suitably impressed. He had half expected to find Ohno up there picking his nose. (He is only faintly disappointed that this is not the case.)_  
  
_Behind Nino and Aiba, there’s a loud snap and a flash of bright light. They turn to find Jun smiling toothily at them from behind his camera lens._  
  
_“So he can remember this later,” Jun says by way of explanation, although they all know it’s intended for his own personal collection._  
  
_No one calls him out on it, nor does Nino bother to point out that there is no way that Ohno will be allowed to forget this, even if he wants to. For the first time in history, today’s ceremony is being televised live across the country. Although it is traditionally considered of enough importance to make the front page of every newspaper, this year the induction of the National Space Program’s first half-alien captain is drawing a lot of attention, with the crowd to prove it._  
  
_Beside Jun, Sho seems to be thinking the same thing. He huffs at Jun’s words, and it comes out a mix of incredulous and fond. Nino’s not surprised to find him there. Lately, Sho and Jun are rarely seen apart, and although Sho might have them believe that it’s because Jun follows him everywhere, that is not entirely the case._  
  
_Despite his gruffness, Nino notes, Sho is looking up at Ohno with slightly misty eyes._  
  
_The ceremony goes on for close to an hour, several speakers coming forward and each of them taking a moment to acknowledge Ohno’s unprecedented presence on stage. For his part, Ohno shows no reaction to any mention of his name. Instead he continues to stand tall, looking straight ahead, past the crowd and out to the horizon._  
  
_Nino is beginning to fidget, beginning to lose patience. Last night had been sleepless for him, and although he refused to admit to Aiba the reason for the dark circles under his eyes and for his jaw-crackingly large yawns on the way here this morning, it's obvious that the culprit is his anticipation of Ohno's return. After the ceremony, Ohno will be moving back to the base with the rest of them. After two years of waiting, he will be within Nino's reach again. No more sneaking out past lights-out for whispered, late night calls from the shared dormitory phone at the end of the hall. No more sending and receiving postcards of random city landmarks and far-off exotic places, postmarked from two months ago, and every inch of white space crammed full of tiny, illegible handwriting. Ohno is back now, finally, and Nino will be able to see him whenever he wants._  
  
_Just the thought of it gives him an intoxicating thrill._  
  
_On the stage, the presentation of diplomas has begun. Each graduate steps forward one at a time, shaking hands with the Chief Space Admiral of Leadership Cultivation as the crowd offers their applause and cheers._  
  
_Ohno is the last one in line. As he steps forward, there is a wave of hushed and curious whispers that moves through the crowd from front to back. When Ohno takes his diploma and shakes the Chief Admiral's hand, there is no applause, only near-silence._  
  
_Nino feels his heart leap to his throat as Ohno's face gives a nervous twitch._  
  
_“Captain!” Aiba shouts, waving wildly in Ohno’s direction._  
  
_Every person on stage turns to look._  
  
_“Idiot!” Nino mutters, smacking Aiba on the back of the head in embarrassment. “They’re_ all _captains!”_  
  
_But then Ohno catches sight of him, and Nino, and Sho, and Jun. For the first time since he appeared on stage, Ohno smiles. He waves back, and Nino finds himself waving too, despite himself, waving and waving, like a total idiot._  
  
_Behind him, Jun’s camera snaps and flashes, snaps and flashes._  
  
_The crowd begins to clap._  
  
_*_  
  
_Later, when the pictures are developed, Nino asks Jun for a copy._  
  
_“Already made them for you,” Jun says, smiling smugly as he hands Nino the stack._  
  
_Nino shifts through them quickly and pulls out the photo of Ohno smiling. He hands the rest back to Jun._  
  
_“Thanks,” Nino says and tucks the picture safely into the inside pocket of his uniform._  
  
_It stays there for many years._


	13. Chapter 13

Nino had only been gone for a few minutes.  
  
“Captain!” Jun is shouting, pounding against the door to Ohno’s cabin with an already raw looking fist. “Captain! Open the door! You think we won’t go just because you lock yourself in your room?! Sho-kun can be captain! Do you hear me?! _Sho can be captain._ ”  
  
Sho stands nearby, still looking a little shell-shocked from the weight of having to deliver such a calamitous announcement. "Me?" he sputters, weakly.  
  
“What’s going on?” Nino asks, taking a cautious step towards Jun.  
  
“He locked himself in,” Jun growls, turning on Nino with an unhinged sort of fury. “Why did you leave him alone?”  
  
“It was just for a minute,” says Nino, lifting his hands up in an attempt to placate Jun’s bubbling anger. “I had to pee.”   
  
“Well next time, hold it!” Jun barks. He whirls back to slam his hand against the door again. “ _Captain_!”  
  
“I thought Sho-chan was with him,” says Nino, raising his voice a little over Jun’s continued thumping.  
  
Sho shakes his head, eyes wide and round. “I didn’t go inside. I stayed out here. He slammed the door in my face.”  
  
Ohno had taken Sho’s dramatic entrance quite calmly, Nino thought, hadn’t show the slightest bit of anxiety as he continued to sleepily rub his eyes while Sho relayed the rest of the mission information to him. Ohno had looked fine, acted fine, or Nino wouldn’t have left him.  
  
Clearly, Ohno had not been fine.  
  
Nino moves forward again, at the same time as Jun drops his hand in exhaustion. It’s quiet for a moment, except for the sound of Jun’s shaky breathing.   
  
The cabin on the other side of the door is silent.   
  
“Captain?” Nino calls out.  
  
There is no response.  
  
“Captain?” he says again.   
  
When there is still nothing, Nino gives a fleetingly glance in Sho and Jun’s direction, then presses himself closer to the door. Quietly, he says, “Satoshi, let me in.”  
  
The lock clicks open.   
  
Nino pushes gently at the door to no resistance until there is a gap large enough for him to squeeze through. Jun, silent but still murderous, looks like he’s going to follow. Before he can, Sho grabs him by the shoulder and drags him back with surprising force.  
  
_God help you, Sho-chan_ , Nino thinks, as he slips into the dark room. He clicks the lock back into place behind him.  
  
On the other side of the door, he hears Jun scream.  
  
**  
  
_There are no lights on in Ohno’s room._  
  
_After the florescent glow of the hallway, it's too dark for Nino to see anything or anyone at all.  
  
“Oh-chan?” he says tentatively, wondering if Ohno is even there. He’d told Nino to meet him here tonight, in his room, and although Nino is more than a little early, he assumed that Ohno would still be waiting for him.  
  
It’s two days since Ohno kissed Nino on the wall and twelve days until Ohno leaves for the Leadership Academy. Nino knows this exactly, because he’s been keeping count. Even now, in the dark, he can feel the seconds ticking by, since and until, until and since. It makes his heart race, makes it ache.  
  
A light pops on in the corner of the room. Ohno is sitting on his bed, blinking owlishly, and his hair is tousled in a way that makes it obvious that Nino’s entrance has only just woken him from a deep sleep.  
  
“Nino,” he says, then yawns.   
  
Ohno is lucky. He is the only cadet in the entire dormitory that doesn’t have a roommate. And even if it’s because of what he is, what his father is, that means he’s kept separate from the others, Nino has always felt a little envious. The room is small, half the size of the one Nino shares with Aiba, but tonight as Nino looks around, he wonders for the first time if it isn’t a little lonely for Ohno, being here all by himself, knowing he’s the only one.  
  
Still, Nino is glad for the privacy it gives them.  
  
“Bed time already, old man?” he teases, moving across the room with confidence now that he can see Ohno’s face.  
  
Ohno gives him a sleepy smile as he approaches. “Just a cat nap.”  
  
Nino sits down next to Ohno on his small bed. “If you asked me here to nap,” he says, scooting closer to relax his head comfortably against Ohno’s shoulder, “you should have said so in the invitation.”  
  
Ohno hums low in his throat, then replies, with a hint of mischief, “Were you expecting something else?”  
  
Nino doesn’t answer. He nestles himself more firmly into the crook of Ohno’s neck, satisfied only when Ohno is squirming from the tickle of Nino's hair against his throat. They sit together, breathing together, for what feels like a long time. Nino is still counting the seconds, seconds that soon become minutes, minutes that seem to cocoon around them as they sit side by side.  
  
“Don’t go.”  
  
He hears himself say the words before he knows he’s thinking them. Except that he’s been thinking them for days now – for two days, since Ohno kissed him, and to be truthful, for two days before that, before Ohno had plans to go anywhere at all. And two days before that, and two days more, back and back, right until the day they met. And maybe even two days before then.   
  
“Don’t go,” he says again, a little louder.  
  
“Okay,” Ohno answers easily. Then he’s quiet again and Nino to think maybe he’s fallen asleep.  
  
But he hasn’t. “Let’s run away together,” Ohno says.  
  
Nino laughs, ignoring the unsure sound of it in his own ears. “Run away?” he repeats, incredulously.   
  
He sits up from Ohno’s shoulder, glances at Ohno’s face, and expects to find it twisted up with barely suppressed mirth at having tricked Nino into believing such a ridiculous proclamation.   
  
Nino blinks. Ohno’s expression is perfectly serious.   
  
“W-where would we go?”  
  
“Anywhere,” says Ohno. “You can pick if you want. I don’t mind.”  
  
“Oh-chan, we can’t – “ Nino stutters out. “You wouldn’t really – “   
  
Ohno reaches for the light beside his bed. He clicks the switch, and Nino is blinded for a moment as the darkness envelopes them. He starts to protest, a sharp objection already on his tongue, when he feels Ohno’s hands cupping his face.   
  
In the darkness, Ohno leans closer, so close that Nino can feel the heat of his breath. Suddenly, his suggestion seems perfectly reasonable.  
  
Nino stops counting seconds when Ohno kisses him.  
  
*  
  
Three weeks and two days after Ohno leaves for the Academy, Nino gets a postcard in the mail.    
  
On the front is a picture of a tropical beach, complete with swaying palm trees and a crystal blue ocean. On the back, written in Ohno’s perfect calligraphy, it says: _ Here?  
  
_Six days later, on his way back from his mother’s house, Nino buys a postcard of a snowy mountain top, thick with towering evergreens and the sparkle of ice. On the back, in his own messy scrawl, he writes:_ No. Here.   
  
_He doesn’t have to wait long for Ohno’s reply._  



	14. Chapter 14

“Captain,” Nino says, hesitating as his eyes adjust to the darkness.  
  
He can hear Ohno before he sees him, can hear his breath roiling in panicked bursts as he stands in the middle of the room.  
  
“I can’t,” Ohno says, voice a throaty whisper. “I won’t. I don’t want to.”  
  
“Captain – “ Nino starts, moving towards him, but Ohno is shaking his head, and the rest of him is shaking too.  
  
“I can’t. I can't," he repeats, over and over, a desperate mantra. "I – “ he starts again then stops. He turns to Nino, eyes widening, dark and wild like a caught animal. “ _You_ can’t. Nino, you can’t go. You can't."  
  
“Oh-chan – “ Nino tries again, but Ohno doesn’t seem to hear him.   
  
“We won’t. We’ll run away,” he’s saying, words slurring together in their hurry to leave his lips, faster and faster, as he speaks. “We’ll leave, like we always said we would. We can go back to Earth. We can go to Hawaii. Or Paris. We'll run away.”  
  
Nino is beside him now, close enough to feel the hot thrum of Ohno’s anxiety, the way it electrifies the air around him. When Ohno reaches out and grabs Nino’s wrist, it’s too hard, his fingers digging into Nino’s skin tight enough to leave a mark.  
  
Nino winces, tries to pull away but can't get free of Ohno's grip. “Satoshi, stop.” he says, quietly. “You’re hurting me.”  
  
The look of turmoil that pales Ohno’s face is enough to make Nino wish he hadn’t said it, hadn’t said anything at all. Ohno’s hand drops away from Nino’s wrist and he stumbles backwards until he's bumping into the edge of his bed. He collapses heavily onto it.  
  
This time Nino does not come closer. He watches from a distance as Ohno sits there, dazed, devastated. The cabin fills with a heavy silence as Nino waits to see if Ohno will say something, anything else. Because there's something Nino wants to say, something he needs to say - right now. But before he does, he wants to make sure that Ohno is listening.  
  
When Ohno remains quiet, Nino takes a deep breath.  
  
“Captain," he says. "I'm requesting permission to go on the mission."  
  
He pauses, waiting for Ohno to protest. But Ohno is still, barely breathing now, and all he does is close his eyes against Nino's words.  
  
"It's my job," Nino continues, thrown a little unsteady by Ohno's reaction, but regaining himself as he continues to speak. "I've worked my whole life for this and I want to do it. All that time on Earth, it’s what I wished I was doing. Now I’m here, and I’m going to. So permission to join the mission. Captain."  
  
There's a long pause, a drawn out moment where Ohno seems frozen there, at the edge of the bed, with his eyes closed tight. But then his fingers start to shake against the bedspread. His feet start to shake against the floor. Soon his whole body is shaking again, shaking enough that Nino can hear his teeth chatter, even across the room.  
  
Nino can’t stand it. He wants to tell him to stop, wants to reach out to touch him, to make him.  
  
“Satoshi, please,” he says, but before he can say more, there’s a sudden, renewed pounding outside on the cabin door.  
  
Nino whirls toward it. “Give us a minute!” he snaps loudly.  
  
The pounding doesn’t stop. Nino marches over to the door, swinging it open. He steps out into the bright hallway.  
  
As expected, he comes face to face with Jun.  
  
“What do you want?” Nino growls, protectively closing the door shut behind him as Jun strains to see around him into the darkness.  
  
“You can’t just lock us out,” says Jun, no calmer, no more soothed than before.  
  
Sho gives Nino an apologetic nod over Jun's shoulder. He looks even more bedraggled than he did when Nino left him a few minutes ago, and Nino will feel sorry for him later, but not now.  
  
Now, Nino scowls at them both. “I said give me a minute, okay? I’m talking to him.”  
  
“He should be talking to all of us!” Jun yowls in aggravation. "We don't have time for this!"  
  
"He'll talk to you when he wants to. Until he does, you need to let me handle this," Nino says. Jun is right. They don't have time for this - because in the room behind him Ohno is crumbling, is coming apart, and Nino doesn't have time to stand in the hallway and argue about it. He turns to leave, pushing at the door.   
  
The door doesn’t open.  
  
Nino tries again, panic skittering out through his body as he uses his full weight against the unyielding entrance. “Captain?” he calls. “Satoshi?”  
  
There is no answer.  
  
Nino starts to pound his fist against the door.


	15. Chapter 15

_It's after the ceremony. Ohno is still in uniform, his diploma still in hand._  
  
_"Hi," he says, and his smile is effervescent._  
  
_"Hi," says Nino, knowing the expression on his own face must be exactly the same. "Captain."_  
  
_For a while, they just stare at each other - staring and grinning, grinning and staring._  
  
_They're alone now, finally, tucked around the corner of one of the buildings surrounding the ceremony stage. The crowd has long since dispersed, the public back to their homes and the cadets and space personnel to the after-ceremony reception. Aiba, Sho and Jun had immediately headed in that direction, tempted by free food and the chance to get their hands on some of the usually base-banned alcohol._  
  
_Nino had let them go ahead without him, and he had waited in the emptying field. He had waited, standing alone, his boots slowly sinking into the grass and dirt still damp from last night's rain. He had waited until he was the only one left, and then continued to wait after that._  
  
_And then Ohno had appeared, walking towards him, waving in his direction with that silly grin already on his face. Nino had met him halfway._  
  
_Now here they are, standing face to face. Although they've seen each other once or twice over the past two years, have touched each other, talked to each other, attempted stolen kisses in the shadows of crowded rooms with varying success, this is the first time they have been completely alone since Ohno left._  
  
_"Are you going to kiss me or what?" Nino says finally, a little impatiently even as his heart hammers away in his chest._  
  
_Ohno laughs, then obliges._  
  
_It's a surprisingly awkward kiss for them. Nino's lips are chapped and Ohno tastes strongly of sweat and they bump noses more than once as they try to find a comfortable angle._  
  
_But it's perfect. Unlike their previous kisses, it's not desperate and messy and driven by pent-up teenage hormones. This one is slow. This one is soft. And when Ohno reaches out with his free hand to curl his fingers into Nino's sleeve, the painfully nervous pounding of Nino's heart comes to a gentle stop._  
  
_"Wow," says Ohno when they pull apart, and he looks a little smug. "Unbelievable."_  
  
_Nino groans, covering his face with his hand in._  
  
_"Out of this world!" Ohno says, gleeful at Nino's mortification._  
  
_Nino punches him in the arm._  
  
_Ohno just laughs again, happily, still tugging on Nino's sleeve._  
  
_"Sorry to keep you waiting," he says._


	16. Chapter 16

After two hours, Nino gives up. He likes to think he knows Ohno well enough to recognize that if the door hasn’t opened by now, it won’t. Ohno can be stubborn, Ohno can be unforgiving, but most of all Ohno can be hurt. Not for the first time, Nino has been the one to hurt him. So Ohno will not open the door, not now, not for Nino.  
  
With the weight of this reality heavy on his shoulders, Nino makes his way back to his cabin. At least he can change his clothes, lie down, pretend to sleep for a while. It's been hours since Sho woke them and Nino didn’t get much sleep last night to begin with. He tries not to think about the reason why – not when that reason has now locked himself behind an impenetrable door.  
  
Nino is exhausted enough not to immediately notice anything unusual when he enters the cabin. Then there is a clattering sound from somewhere above. He looks up, startled to find Aiba clambering out of an open vent in the wall and onto the top bunk.  
  
“…What are you doing?” Nino asks, not entirely sure he wants to know the answer, but equally thankful for the sudden distraction.  
  
Aiba jumps in surprise, nearly falling off the bunk. He glances down to where Nino is watching him, eyes bulging with a comedic sort of panic.  
  
“Oh!” he says, masking on an unconvincing expression of nonchalant so quickly it can only come across as suspicious. “I was just – cleaning – up – there –”  
  
He leans his body casually to one side, trying to block the vent opening from Nino’s view. Unfortunately, Nino doesn’t need to see anything.  
  
“What’s meowing?” Nino asks.  
  
Aiba’s eyes shift guiltily, back and forth. “Nothing…”  
  
“Aiba-chan,” Nino says, unamused.  
  
“Fine,” Aiba sighs, although he looks far too happy for someone caught in this situation. “Nino-chan, come here!” he calls into the vent.  
  
Nothing happens.  
  
“Come on, don’t be shy!” Aiba coos.  
  
He reaches up into the opening and pulls out a mangy-looking cat.  
  
Nino almost can’t believe it. Almost. “You have a cat in the vents? And you named it Nino?”  
  
“It was Toma’s idea,” Aiba says quickly, clutching the cat to his chest in a way that looks suffocating. The cat makes no move to protest Aiba’s attentions, not even when he leans over the edge of the bed and drops the poor, docile creature down into Nino’s arms.  
  
Luckily, Nino has quick reflexes. He catches the cat and is surprised to find that despite the sudden free-fall, it’s purring quite happily.  
  
Nino rolls his eyes as the cat begins kneading into him painfully. This cat is clearly as big an idiot as its owner...but also kind of cute in an ungroomed, vent-monster sort of way.  
  
“Do the others know you have a cat?”  
  
“No!” Aiba says. He jumps down from the top bunk and lands even less gracelessly than the cat. At least he doesn’t except Nino to catch him too. “Well, Toma knew, but that’s it. Don’t tell Matsujun. He’ll make me get rid of her!”  
  
Nino balks. “This cat is a _girl_ and you named her after _me_?”  
  
“But Nino, we didn’t know she was a girl until she had kittens!” Aiba insists. He pats affectionately at the cat’s back, her head having already disappeared deep into the warmth of Nino’s collar. “Congratulations~!” he adds, with a throaty laugh.  
  
Nino glances up at the vent incredulously, then back to Aiba. “Are there kittens up there?"  
  
“Of course not!” says Aiba. He grins brightly from ear to ear. “They live in the vent in Sho-chan’s cabin.”  
  
Nino shakes his head with mild disapproval, most of which is negated by how comforting he finds the cat burrowed into his shirt.  
  
Aiba notices this, but he doesn’t say anything about it. Instead he asks, “What happened with Captain?”  
  
Nino presses his mouth into an unfriendly line. “How did you know?”  
  
Aiba has the decency to look sheepish. “I was crawling through the vent over the kitchen and I heard Matsujun and Sho-chan talking.”  
  
Nino’s glad he hadn’t stopped in the kitchen on the way here. He squeezes the cat in his arms. She keeps purring.  
  
“Captain locked me out," he admits.  
  
Aiba frowns.  
  
“Sometimes,” he says after a pause, and he's fidgeting a little in place, like he's worried, his voice an anxious sort of whisper. “Sometimes I think Captain loves you so much it hurts him. It hurts him a lot.”  
  
Nino feels his grip tightening on the animal he's holding and he's sure he must be crushing her, but she's purring louder than ever. She's so loud that Aiba has to raise his voice to be heard over her.  
  
“But Captain wasn’t the only one who was hurting, right?" he continues, a little cautiously. "My mom sent me letters you know. She told me about you, how you were alone all that time. You were hurting too.”  
  
Nino is a little stunned by the statement, but he tries not to let it show. “I want to go on this mission,” he says around the lump in his throat that he assures himself is just cat allergies.  
  
“I know you do,” says Aiba, and his hand has strayed to petting Nino instead of his namesake. “So do I. And Sho-chan and Matsujun. I think Captain wants to go, but he's afraid.”  
  
Nino's hands are shaking, and he assures himself it's just from the vibrations of the cat’s purr. He doesn't know what to say. He doesn't know what to think. Captain is afraid, he knew that much from the start, but he's not sure what it means - although maybe he can guess.  
  
Nino clears his throat, aware that Aiba is still watching him with acute concern. "What did you name my kittens?" he asks.  
  
If Aiba realizes he's intentionally changing the subject, he spares Nino the agony of admitting it. He laughs again, fingers in Nino's hair.  
  
"After Mario," he says. "There's Mario and Luigi and Yoshi and - "  
  
"Peach?" Nino asks, hopefully.  
  
"Peach," Aiba agrees, enthusiastically.  
  
Nino gives an approving nod. "How far through that vent do I have to climb to meet them?"


	17. Chapter 17

The vents are not nearly as roomy as Nino had imagined them. He follows Aiba blindly, crawling behind him on his hands and knees around twists and turns that make very little sense in relation to any understanding Nino might have of the layout of their sector. He’s just beginning to feel claustrophobic, and a little short of breath, when Aiba turns a corner ahead of him and the passage opens out into a more reasonable size. They must be over the kitchen, Nino realizes, the residual smell of curry more than enough of a hint. He slows a little, moving closer to one of the few grated openings to confirm his suspicions.   
  
The grating is hard to see through. Nino can only just make out the figures of Sho and Jun, huddled together near an open cupboard by the galley stove, speaking to each other in low voices.  
  
“If Nino can’t make him go, then we’re screwed,” Jun is hissing and Nino can see from the crazed, unkempt outline of his hair that he's been rending it with frustration.  
  
There’s a loud crunching noise, followed by the sound of feverish chewing. Even around a mouth-full, Sho words are still measured with remarkable amount of reasonableness. “Jun, it’s not Nino’s responsibility.”  
  
“Then what good is he?”  
  
“You don’t mean that.”  
  
“I don’t mean that." Jun gives a remorseful sounding huff. "As soon as Captain is out, I’m taking down all the doors in this whole place,” he mutters darkly. “No locks, no doors. No where to hide.”  
  
“Nino?” Aiba whispers, and Nino looks up to find Aiba staring at him from a few feet further down the passage. He looks worried again.  
  
Nino moves away from the grate. “Are we close yet?” he asks.  
  
“Almost,” says Aiba and continues to lead the way.  
  
*  
  
When Nino gets back to Ohno’s cabin, the door is still closed. He knocks, gently, just once, expecting no answer.  
  
There isn’t one.  
  
Sighing, he slides to the floor with his back against the locked door. He reaches into the folds of his jacket to pull out the slumbering ball of white fluff he recently rescued from the vents, waking her from her nap as he does so.  
  
“Still locked, Princess,” he tells the kitten as he places her gently into his lap. She answers him with a dainty yawn, settling herself more comfortably. Her eyes slip closed again and she purrs appreciatively as he scratches behind her ears.  
  
Time passes, although Nino can’t be sure how much. Peach stays in his lap, tucked against him in a tiny warm bundle and Nino is thankful for the company. It’s only after she's fallen asleep again, her purring quieting into silence, that Nino realizes that he’s been humming. He's been humming the same song that he'd heard Ohno sing on the night when he’d started to eat again.  
  
It's a night that feels like years ago now.  
  
It hadn't been first time Nino had heard that song. Ohno sang it often when they were back on Earth – so often, in fact, and so often in Nino's presence, that Nino’s sure that he still knows every word of it by heart. But tonight, Nino doesn't feel like singing, so he keeps his lips pressed tight and hums instead.  
  
There’s movement on the other side of the door. It's so quiet that Nino almost doesn’t notice it, wouldn’t have noticed it, but Peach does. She stirs a little in her sleep, lets out a questioning kitten sigh.  
  
Nino runs a reassuring hand through her fur and she doesn’t wake. He keeps humming, but he tries to listen too, every nerve ending in his body awoken beneath his skin. First there are footsteps coming closer. Then the footsteps stop. After a moment, he can hear the careful sounds of Ohno sliding down to the floor until, with the door is still between them, the two of them are sitting back to back.  
  
Time passes and Nino keeps humming.  
  
In Nino’s lap, Peach sleeps.  
  
From inside his cabin, Ohno listens.


	18. Chapter 18

_When Nino finds him, Ohno is sitting on the wall out behind the base._  
  
_It’s exactly where Machida-kun had told Nino to look for him, but Nino is still surprised. He’s never been back here before and it had taken him a while, walking around the far perimeter, to even find this spot._  
  
_“Oh-chan!” Nino calls as he approaches._  
  
_Ohno doesn’t hear him and Nino is about to call out again until he hears it._  
  
_Ohno is singing._  
  
_Nino comes to a stop a few feet from where Ohno is sitting on the high wall. Ohno is facing out, away from the base and away from Nino, and singing._  
  
_It’s a strange song. It doesn't sound anything like any of the ones Nino knows and he wonders if Ohno has made it up, as Nino sometimes has been known to do himself. Whether or not he has, Nino likes the sound of it, and Ohno has a nice voice. Instead of interrupting, Nino finds himself listening quite intently as Ohno continues._  
  
_The song finishes and Ohno looks down to where Nino is standing. Nino pushes himself off from the wall and grins, only a little embarrassed that Ohno seems to have known he was there the entire time._  
  
_“Hi,” says Nino._  
  
_“Hi,” says Ohno._  
  
_“How’s the weather up there?” Nino asks, gesturing up towards Ohno's perch with a tilt of his head._  
  
_“Hm.” Ohno squints up at the cloudless sky. “Might storm.”_  
  
_Nino laughs then kicks the wall with a scuffed sneaker toe. “Can I come up?”_  
  
_“Sure.”_  
  
_Nino hasn’t known Ohno long – just long enough to know that he really,_ really _likes him. It’s been a few months since Nino confronted him on his alien heritage in front of a room full of Junior Cadets. Nino’s been following him around ever since. So far Ohno doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he seems to encourage it._  
  
_Nino lives for the encouragement._  
  
_It is with that encouragement that he attempts to scramble up the side of the wall, only to find that it’s more difficult than expected. Nino likes to think that he is pretty light on his feet, at least if his obstacle training scores are anything to go by, and his immediate failure makes him wonder how Ohno got up there to begin with. Still, he's too determined to give up easily and he struggles for a little longer until Ohno reaches down to offer him a hand._  
  
_Nino looks at the hand crankily, but takes it, channeling his annoyance into suppressing the part of him that is secretly giddy for an excuse to hold Ohno’s hand._  
  
_Not that he hasn't held hands with Ohno before now - they have, after all, known each other for several months - but it’s nice to finally have a practical excuse._  
  
_With Ohno’s help, Nino makes it up the wall. Nino nods in a slightly flippant acknowledgement of Ohno's services, then settles himself unnecessarily close to him on this very uncrowned expanse of wall._  
  
_Ohno doesn’t move away and so Nino, quite naturally, feels free to ask him personal questions._  
  
_“What was that song you were singing?”_  
  
_“It’s what my mama used to sing to me,” replies Ohno. He’s looking out across the empty fields that surround the base. “I think it might be something she learned from my father.”_  
  
_“Something alien?” Nino asks, endlessly curious._  
  
_Ohno shrugs. “Could be. I like to sing it when I get homesick."  
  
Nino is a little shocked by this statement - even more shocked that Ohno doesn't seem to be the slightest bit ashamed of his admission. Of course, in a place like this, all of them so very young and so very far away from home_ , _it's natural that every cadet feel homesick at some point or another. But to admit it - well, it's unheard of as far as Nino is concerned. It just isn't done._  
  
_Apparently unaware of this unspoken rule, Ohno elaborates. “I didn't want to come here, but Mama said I should join. She made me.”_  
  
_Nino hesitates, kicking his heels back against the wall a few times as he weighs his reply. Finally he says, “My mom paid me to do it. I hate it here."_  
  
_Neither of them speak for a moment, both staring straight ahead, out into the distance - out towards home. Then Ohno knocks their sneakers together playfully. Nino looks over to find Ohno smiling at him._  
  
_"She paid you?" he asks, smirking a little. "What did you buy with the money?"_  
  
_"A new video game of course," Nino says, as if it should be obvious. Then he glowers. "I didn't think they'd be banned here or I wouldn't have bothered."  
  
Ohno blinks at him a few times. Then, as if there has been a time delay in Nino's answer, he belatedly bursts into laughter.  
  
"It's not funny!" Nino says. "Don't laugh at me! I - "  
  
Ohno reaches over and takes Nino's hand and whatever else Nino was going to say is lost to him. They've held hands before, they held hands only a moment ago - but it's the first time that Ohno has ever been the one to take Nino's hand, to initiate.  
  
"It is funny," Ohno says. "It's cute."_  
  
_Nino doesn't reply -_ can't _reply_ , _too busy sputtering in embarrassment, torn between jumping off the wall in the hopes of a quick and merciful death or staying here to never let go of Ohno's hand again._  
  
_It's only when, without warning, Ohno starts singing again, that Nino firmly decides on the latter._  
  
_They stay there, holding hands on the wall together, for the rest of the afternoon._  
  
*  
  
Nino doesn’t know he’s fallen asleep until he’s woken by a gentle hand on his shoulder.  
  
“Nino,” Sho says kindly when Nino opens his eyes. “Dinner’s ready.”  
  
Nino sits forward, pushing back from the door and grimacing at the stiffness along his spine. Vaguely, he wonders how long he’s been asleep. Peach is no longer in his lap and there’s no sign of her anywhere nearby, although he’s not too worried by it – she’s probably gone back to her brothers.  
  
“Thanks but I’m not hungry."  
  
“You need to eat,” says Sho, “and so does Captain.”  
  
Nino glances beside him at the tray of food that's been placed gently against the wall with Captain’s plate on it.  
  
He turns back to Sho, frowning. “He won’t open the door.”  
  
“Maybe not,” Sho agrees easily. “But if he does, there’s something for him.”  
  
He offers a hand and Nino takes it, allowing himself to be pulled up to his feet. Sho knows better than to treat him like he's fragile, although it's obvious by the way he's looking at him that that's exactly what he thinks - that Nino is on the verge of breaking.  
  
Maybe he is.  
  
Sho clears this throat and when he speaks again, it's a little louder than necessary. "We've been called in to the CC tomorrow for a preliminary briefing. Captain is supposed to be there, but if he - " Sho's gaze flits towards the closed door and he lowers his voice. " - if he can't make it, then we'll go with out him."  
  
Nino nods in understanding. "I'll be ready."  
  
Sho gives a smile, but it's weak around the edges. "Good. Now let's go. The other's are waiting and you know how they get."  
  
"I do," Nino replies. He tries his best to return the smile, and judging by the relief in Sho's expression, he succeeds.  
  
He steps forward, away from the door, resisting the urge to glance back and check it. It will still be closed, no matter how many times he looks.  
  
He follows Sho back towards the dining cabin.


	19. Chapter 19

_In accordance with the national regulations set by the Intergalactic Ministry Standards, Section A 5.15, the formation of a Space Crew is left to the sole discretion of President of the Space Academy and Grand Admiral of the Intergalactic CC, Johnny Kitagawa._  
  
_Already several decades past the standard age of retirement, Johnny has an infamous sort of reputation and is a legend among Academy members for his eccentric behavior. There is not a single recruit, from Junior Cadet to Debuted Space Officer, who does not have a story to share of a strange encounter with the President, or at the very least an experience as the recipient of his favorite term of reference for all young men under his purview – ”you."_  
  
_However, despite his oddities, Johnny has proven to be skilled unlike any other in the grouping of what have gone on to become some of the greatest Space Crews in known history. Such famous crews, under the helm of equally famous captains - Capts. Nakai, Joshima, Sakamoto to name a few - had all been created by the seemingly random assignments set into place by Johnny's whim._  
  
_Nino has heard the whole mythology. He knows the name of every captain and the spacecraft of every one of the President's hand-picked crews. But it isn't until he experiences this inexplicably magic touch first hand, that he understands why Johnny is still the president after all these years._  
  
_*_  
  
_Within a year of Ohno’s return from the Leadership Academy, Ohno has climbed to the top of the list of those to be designated their own crew. Although many Captains can wait years for this, Ohno has been the exception to the rule many times now, and he continues in the vein._  
  
_“How many members?” Jun asks, teeth nearly nashing with excitement when Ohno relays the news to them one evening in the Academy's crowded cafeteria._  
  
_Ohno shrugs. “He didn’t say," he answers, clearly more interested in pushing the untouched food around his tray than in this conversation._  
  
_But Sho is interested enough for the both of them, leaning forward in his seat eagerly. "Four? Five? It will depend on the specialty unit. Did he mention the specialty unit?"_  
  
_“Supernovas, I think," is Ohno's reply. He glances briefly in Nino’s direction then back to Sho who has perked up excitedly._  
  
_Nino doesn’t say a word. He feels his stomach twist with jealousy. Sho has been training as an expert in the supernova field since becoming a Debuted Space Officer - a promotion that comes with the completion of Junior Cadet Training on a cadet’s twentieth birthday._  
  
_At twenty, Ohno had been chosen for the Leadership Academy. A year later, Sho had been siphoned into the Supernova Investigative Science Division. Just last December, Aiba had joined the Intergalactic Space Vehicle Flight School._  
  
_Nino and Jun on the other hand are still waiting for their assignments, counting down the days until their birthdays with searing impatience._  
  
_With Sho’s specialty, he will be a shoe in for Ohno’s crew. Nino thinks he deserves to sulk about that._  
  
_“I’ll be leaving first,” he announces tersely, collecting up his tray, his chair skidding loudly against the floor as he stands up from the table. He knows that if he looks, he'll find the others watching him with thinly veiled sympathy, so he keeps his head down as he quickly exits the room._  
  
_He’s leaving the building when Ohno finally catches up to him._  
  
_“Don’t be upset,” Ohno says. He reaches out to stop Nino, but Nino has already stopped on his own._  
  
_“It could happen you know,” Nino says, quietly. “We could be on different crews. We could be separated like before. Only this time - ”_  
  
_He doesn't want to finish the sentence. He doesn't have to._  
  
_Ohno shakes his head. He curls his fingers into Nino’s sleeve anyway, even if there's no need to. “We won’t.”_  
  
_Nino frowns, a deep unhappy set to his mouth. “You don’t know that.”_  
  
_“I know it in my heart,” Ohno says and he smiles in a way that is probably meant to be reassuring, but is only infuriatingly charming._  
  
_“You’re gross,” says Nino, sighing. He smacks Ohno’s hand away, then takes it in his, linking their fingers together. "I wouldn't want you as a captain anyway. As if I would take orders from the likes of you."_  
  
_Ohno laughs. He squeezes Nino's hand and doesn't let go, and this time, if he means it to be reassuring, it is._  
  
_*_  
  
_A week later, Nino and Jun are leaving Astronomical Statistics when the President himself appears, materializing as if out of nowhere in the hallway before them._  
  
_“You!” he says, pointing in a way that is vague enough to include both of them. “Do you have your assignments yet?”_  
  
_Nino and Jun shake their heads in bewildered unison._  
  
_Johnny points to Jun. “’Galactic Engineer.” He points to Nino. “Disarming Technician.”_  
  
_Then without any further elaboration, he pushes past them and continues down the hallway._  
  
_Nino and Jun stare after him in stunned silence. Nino is the first to recover and he steps forward quickly, calling out after the President’s retreating back._  
  
_“Sir, what specialty?”_  
  
_Johnny does not turn around to give his answer._  
  
_“Supernova.”_


	20. Chapter 20

Nino has never met Julie Kitagawa, but much like her father, she has a reputation that far precedes her. As President and Chief Commanding Officer of the Intergalactic CC, Julie oversees all space-based missions including the promoting – or demoting – of her father’s hand-picked crews. Although Johnny may select the members and their specialty purpose, once in space it is Julie who decides whether or not a crew is ever assigned to a legitimate live mission. Julie Kitagawa shares none of her father’s eccentricities, nor is she afraid to turn down even her father’s most prestigious formations if she so chooses.  
  
Nino is given only the briefest of warnings from an unusually fidgety Jun about what to expect before they are all marched into Julie's intimidating spacious office. Julie, seated behind her imposing desk, does not stand when they enter. She does not return their salute.  
  
“Where is your captain?” she asks sharply, looking down the line, her eyes boring into each one of them in turn before stopping on the empty space where their captain should be standing.  
  
“Captain Ohno could not make it today,” says Sho immediately, before any of the others can speak.   
  
To say that Julie looks displeased by this answer is an understatement.   
  
“If he finds meeting with me to be so inconvenient, then I’m not sure why he thinks he’ll remain captain of this mission. Perhaps he needs reminding of this.”  
  
Sho’s back stiffens almost imperceptibly, but when he speaks his tone is as polite and deferential as ever.   
  
“Commander, if you’ll allow me to say it, perhaps _you_ need reminding that it was only this time last year when Captain Ohno Satoshi was the recipient of the Intergalactic Medal of Honor.”  
  
Julie smiles, mirthlessly. “Yes thank you, Lieutenant. I hadn't forgotten. I don't think any of us will soon forget his refusal to accept it.”  
  
Sho returns her smile, although his is genuine. “Only because you wouldn't give him four more of them to share with the rest of his crew.”  
  
Beside Nino, Aiba wiggles just slightly in place. When Nino looks up, he can see that Aiba is trying to hold back his own grin - a proud grin. Nino doesn't blame him. Even he'd know about the medal. It had been impossible to avoid knowing about it, an intergalactic drama that made every headline back on Earth. The first half-alien captain receiving, and then rejecting, the highest award of his profession, both of these things equally unprecedented. And in the middle of it all, there had been Ohno, quietly stubborn Ohno, on the front page of every paper, calmly declaring that he had no intention of taking any honor that was not also presented to his crew.  
  
Julie's smile drops into a grimace before smoothing out into a stern but accepting line. “Fine. Special Lt. Sakurai, as second in command for your crew, you may receive this briefing on your captain’s behalf. But tell Ohno if he isn’t here next time, there will be no mission – for any of you. I have plenty of up-and-coming crews that are dying for the chance to take your place.”  
  
“I’m sure you do,” replies Sho coolly. “But we are the best. And you and I both know that you need the best.”


	21. Chapter 21

_It happens in a split second._  
  
_They’re halfway through acing the atmospheric test flight, their first one since receiving their own newly fitted ship, christened the Tempestas - the very ship they will soon be taking together all the way into outer space. It's a beauty, all sleek lines and sharp angles, filled with the latest and greatest technology, along with ever comfort a crew could hope for - the Captain's Deck alone is bigger than their entire previous training vehicle._  
  
_The test flight is running smoothly. Aiba has been impressively steady on the controls since take-off, honing his usual enthusiasm in on steering the ship with expert precision. At this rate, they could complete this with a perfect score._  
  
_In retrospect, the explosion was probably meant to be part of the test. It catches all of them off guard, but Aiba the most – and suddenly the ship is swerving sharply._  
  
_“Crew, strap in,” Ohno’s voice crackles over the PA system._  
  
_Up in the Special Unit deck, Nino and Sho scramble for their seats as the emergency siren begins to flair, lights flashing. The ship lurches again and Nino finds himself flying across the room, feels himself smacking into the wall._  
  
_The last thing he hears is Sho shouting his name. Then everything goes black._

 

  
  
_When he wakes up, Jun is beside him._  
  
_“Are you okay?” Jun asks. He puts a firm hand out to stop Nino from moving as he struggles to sit up._  
  
_“What happened?” says Nino. He heeds Jun’s warning gesture, but even without moving there’s pain shooting through him, so sharp and hot that he feels light-headed from it. He looks down to see his left hand, bloody and mangled._  
  
_“You knocked yourself out,” Jun explains sternly, rummaging around in his first aid kit. “And broke your hand.”_  
  
_“Matsujun, is he all right? Is he dead?” comes the panicked trilling of Aiba’s voice from the speaker above them._  
  
_“Aiba, I told you already he’s not dead,” Jun huffs, knowing the intercom will pick up his reply and relay it down to what must be a cockpit in chaos. “Keep flying.”_  
  
_Jun glances over his shoulder as he pulls out the antiseptic. “Captain,” he says. “Can you get me some more bandages from the supply room?”_  
  
_There’s the slightest of movements from the corner of the room and Nino follows Jun's gaze. It's Ohno, standing quietly, eyes wide with concern as he stares at Nino. He nods once, then quickly disappears._  
  
_“Captain came straight up when Sho called,” Jun says, snapping on his latex gloves before he beings to clean the wound._  
  
_Nino hisses slightly as the antiseptic begins to seep in. “Is Sho okay?”_  
  
_“He’s fine – only you were dumb enough not to get your seatbelt on in time. He’s down in the cockpit trying to keep Aiba under control. We have two more hours of flight time and I told them you’d want us to keep going.”_  
  
_Nino nods, even as tears begin to prick at the edge of his vision. He would be embarrassed, but it really hurts, and Jun is at least polite enough not to make any comments._  
  
_A moment later, Ohno reappears with bandages in hand. Jun takes them from him, his thanks more curt than usual. "You can go now, Captain. I’ve got it under control.”_  
  
_Ohno shakes his head. “I’ll stay.”_  
  
_Jun turns to give Ohno an unreadable look, but Ohno stands his ground. Jun sighs. He finishes wrapping Nino's hand and Nino is thankful for his obvious skill - finally all those nights Jun had forcibly subjected them to his first-aid practice, fitting them into slings and splints and mumifying them with rolls of itchy gauze, are paying off._  
  
_“This should do until we land. It will need an x-ray though, and you’ll have to use your right hand for a while."_  
  
_“I can,” says Nino, teeth gritting as Jun helps him to place the injured hand back into his lap._  
  
_“Good,” Jun says._  
  
_He gives another glance in Ohno’s direction as he's packing up the rest of his kit._  
  
_“I’m going back to my station," he says, in a tone that he seems to hope will be in some way meaningfully to his captain, but Ohno either does not catch this intonation - or pretends that he doesn't._  
  
_It’s silent once Jun leaves the room. Ohno knows better than to ask if Nino is all right. Instead he continues to stand at a distance, silently staring._  
  
_“What was that about?” Nino asks, gesturing as best he can with his good hand in the direction that Jun has left in._  
  
_“He knows,” is all Ohno says._  
  
_Nino’s eyes begin to prickle again, but this time it’s not from the pain. “Knows what?”_  
  
_Ohno's gaze jumps from Nino's face, down to his bandaged hand, where it wavers a moment. “About us," he says._  
  
_Nino closes his eyes. “How did he find out?”_  
  
_“I don’t know," says Ohno. "I think maybe he’s always known.”_  
  
_“He worries," Nino says._  
  
_“He worries,” Ohno agrees, with a nod._  
  
_Nino opens his eyes. “You worry, too," he adds and they're talking about something else now. He tries to wiggle his injured hand, but it only makes him grimace._  
  
_Ohno nods. He looks away from Nino's hand, meets Nino's gaze, his eyes round with anxiety. “I worry, too."_  
  
_It's silent again. Then Ohno steps forward, dropping to the floor to pull Nino to him, carefully, so carefully, like he's sure that Nino will break._  
  
_“Stop worrying so much, old man,” Nino complains, his voice muffled into Ohno’s uniform-clad shoulder. "It's only a hand. I have a whole other one."_  
  
_Ohno laughs, but it sounds a little tearful and Nino uses his good hand to cuff Ohno on the back of the head._  
  
_"See?" he says smugly when Ohno gives a noise of complaint._  
  
_Still, when Ohno begins to pull away, Nino doesn’t let him go - so Ohno stays where he is._  
  
_Because they both know that Nino worries too._


	22. Chapter 22

Nino is trying not to panic.  
  
The door to Ohno’s cabin is wide open. The room behind it is empty.  
  
Captainless.  
  
Nino had come straight here as soon as the crew returned from their briefing at the CC. The others had let him pass by them wordlessly – even Jun, who a few hours ago would have been pushing him aside to get there first. Nino had wanted to say thank you, but all he could do was repress the urge to break into a run.  
  
He had hoped to find something, anything, but a closed door.  
  
Anything would be better than a closed door.  
  
Except for this.  
  
An open door, with an empty room, and Ohno nowhere to be found.  
  
Nino takes a slow breath in. He takes a slow breath out. He closes the door to Ohno's empty room behind him.  
  
He heads for the ship.

  
  
***

  
_He doesn’t know why he does it. He blames it on the alcohol – it's the first time he's let himself get this drunk since the day he was left behind. That day he'd cut himself off, permanently, in the hopes of avoiding just this kind of thing._  
  
_But this morning when he'd woken up and looked at the calendar – he'd thought he deserved to indulge himself._  
  
_He's four beers in when he finally makes it up to the roof to smoke. It's cold, even for November, but of course he's forgotten his coat. His teeth are already chattering by the time he manages to get a cigarette out of the crumpled pack. He's fumbling to light it when he accidentally looks up.  
  
He looks up into the night sky. He looks up into the stars._  
  
_“I miss you,” he says suddenly, feeling stupid even as the words leave his mouth, tumbling over each other in a rush of white fog. “I couldn’t tell you when you asked me but – you knew, right? How I felt."  
  
He pauses, wiping at his face with the palm of his hand.  
  
"You know how I feel.”_  
  
_He shakes his head then, takes one long drag of his cigarette before he drops it to the ground and stubs it out with the toe of his untied sneaker.  
  
“This is silly,” he says to no one.  
  
He turns to leave, but his knees feel like jelly. He grabs on to the cold metal roof railing, startled when something warm and wet hits the back of his hand. It takes him a moment to realize it’s his own tears.  
  
He looks back up.  
  
"I love you," he says, voice cracking a little._ _Then repeats it, louder, as if it might be better heard that way, might be better transmitted across the vastness of the universe.  
  
"I love you."_  
  
_There's a flash in the darkness above – a burst of white, hot light that reverberates in strobe-like pulses before zig-zaggings strangely across the sky. Nino blinks up at it, eyes a teary blur, but even through the glare of the city below, it's too bright to look at. He turns away again.  
  
It's not a shooting star, but for a moment, he still hopes that the wish he's made comes true._  
  
_“Happy birthday, Ohno-san,” he mumbles, then slowly makes his way to bed._

  
*  
  
_The next day, Nino arrives at work to find the entire company in chaos._  
  
_“There’s been a casualty,” explains Narimiya in a hushed whisper when Nino catches him long enough to ask. “On the_ Tempestas _."_  
  
_Nino feels the room start to spin around him, and it's not a symptom of his otherwise crushing hangover. All he can do is keep his mouth shut and hope he doesn't vomit onto his desk – not that anyone would notice in this thrum of panic. When door to the office slams open a moment later, the entire room jumps to attention, everyone but Nino._  
  
_“Sir?” says the Chief Manager, bowing nearly in half._  
  
_Johnny ignores him. He scans the room until his eyes land on Nino – Nino, who is the only one still sitting at his desk._  
  
_“You,” Johnny bellows, pointing at him, although Nino has no time to feel deja vu. "Come with me.”_  
  
_The entire office turns to look. Nino stands, hopes that no one can see how the effort of it makes him shake, shake more than he's already shaking. Without another word, from anyone, Nino follows Johnny out of the office._  
  
_Three weeks later, he’s boarding the Kansai Infinity as its eighth crew member._  
  
_Shooting star or not, he's on his way to space._  



	23. Chapter 23

Nino checks the Captain’s Deck, the cockpit, even the engine room. He checks every corner and every corridor until there’s only one place left.  
  
When he gets to the Special Unit, there is Ohno. He has one hand on the back what used to be Nino's – what used to be _Toma's_ – chair. He doesn’t turn when Nino approaches, but Nino can tell that he knows it’s him by the way the taught hunch of his shoulders relaxes as Nino’s boots click to a stop just behind him.  
  
For a long moment, it's only silent. Then Ohno begins to speak.  
  
“It exploded too soon,” he says quietly, hand still on the back of the chair. “It was a big one so we knew – we knew it was a possibility. But the captain had to – _I_ had to decide. And I sent him in anyway.“  
  
He turns then and the blank expression on his face brings an uncomfortable prickle to life across Nino's skin. In that moment, the whole room has changed temperature, has turned ice cold.  
  
“There was nothing left,” Ohno explains without a trace of emotion. “Nothing at all. He didn’t have a chance.“  
  
He blinks, slowly. There are no tears in his eyes this time and his pupils are stormy dark. He looks inhuman.  
  
He looks alien.  
  
“Toma died," he says, then stops to lick his chapped lips as the air around them gets colder and colder and colder. "And all I could think was that it could have been you.”

Nino can't find his voice to answer. He tries to move closer, but Ohno shakes his head. He puts a hand up, and across the room Nino feels himself being pushed back a step.

Nino has heard stories, has heard whisperings, of this Ohno Satoshi, though he has never met him. There’s a reason Ohno had a separate dormitory in the Academy. There’s a reason people did not know if they should clap and cheer for his achievements. Ohno’s father was an alien. Ohno has alien inside him, underneath his skin. It makes him dangerous, it makes him unpredictable. It makes everyone around him afraid.

"Toma died," Ohno repeats and his voice has changed now too – deep and warbling. Nino tries to move again, but can't.

_"And I was so thankful it wasn’t you."_  
  
The room goes completely black. Nino sees nothing, but he digs his heels into the hard floor beneath him, shoving himself forward as the room seems to thrum around him. When he thinks he must be close enough, he reaches out into the dark, fumbling until his fingers close around a jacket sleeve, around an elbow. He moves his hands blindly, following the quaking edges of Ohno’s body, until he finds his hand, grabs it tightly in his own.  
  
"Satoshi," he says. "Satoshi."  
  
It's light again. Ohno is looking down at Nino's hand. Nino can feel him vibrating, forcefully at first but lessening with every second, his gaze fixed on Nino's fingers.  
  
Then suddenly he's still. His eyes aren't so dark anymore, are brighter with each blink of his lashes. The room begins to warm itself.  
  
Long minutes pass. Nino waits patiently, heart beating fast and furious in his chest. When Ohno is fully himself again, he looks up.

“Oh-chan?” Nino asks gently, just to be sure.

Ohno nods. “It’s me. Sorry, I – “ He gives a shaky breath in and out, and it’s almost a laugh, but it can’t really be. “It’s me.”

“I lost you there for a second,” Nino says, forcing a smile.

“Sorry,” Ohno says again. “I don’t know why – “ He shakes his head, slowly back and forth, as if he’s trying to clear it.

Nino squeezes his hand. “Let’s go back,” he says. “You haven’t eaten. You haven’t slept.”

Ohno nods again. He lets Nino lead him away, away from the Special Unit, away form Toma’s chair. They’ve made it all the way to the ship’s entryway when Ohno stops walking. Nino turns to look at him, a little warily though he tries not to let it show, and he’s relieved when he finds Ohno’s expression so clearly far from emotionless.

“Nino,” Ohno says, voice barely about a whisper. “Do you still love me? I know you did before, even if you didn’t like to say it. But now?”  
  
Nino tightens his still-firm grip on Ohno's hand. “How can you even ask me that?”

Ohno only shrugs. He looks small now, tired, and Nino wonders how anyone can fear of him when he is so clearly the one who is afraid. “Maybe I need to hear you say it.”

“I’ve loved you since I was thirteen years old," Nino says, more petulantly than he means to.  
  
Ohno smiles, just a little. “And do you still?” he presses.

Nino takes a breath, lets the word slide out on the exhale. “Yes."

Ohno nods. He presses their palms together, fingers intertwined.  
  
“Okay," he says, and he takes a deep breath as if he is preparing himself. "Then let’s go.”

Nino can only blink at him in confusion.

Ohno smiles. “Let’s go get that supernova.”  
  
  
***  
  
END OF PART TWO.  


*~Dance in the starship　終わらないparty　このままGo to Intergalactic~*

  
  
  
BEGIN PART THREE.


	24. PART THREE

It takes 96 hours to ready the ship, to get everything prepared and into place. With Ohno communicating again, things run relatively smoothly and the crew is in the highest spirits they’ve been in a long time. Jun even lets Aiba high-five him again.

Nino’s not sure how to explain to the others the reason for Ohno’s change in heart. Nino’s not even entirely sure of the reason himself – can’t, isn’t ready, to admit that Ohno only agreed to go on this mission after what Nino confessed, what he confirmed for him. Instead, Nino answers the others’ flurry of relieved confusion with a shrug, a simple, “Don’t look at me. That guy’s always been weird.” It’s not a real answer, but it’s enough – besides, none of them have much time to be asking questions when there is so much to do.

For Nino, after five years that felt to him a lifetime, a lifetime of standing still, everything is moving a little too fast. Though Ohno seems to have recovered himself, has worked diligently along side the rest of them without a word of complaint or anxiety, Nino knows him too well not to see a shadow of doubt at the corner of every reassuring smile he doles out to them. But despite these suspicions, there is not a moment to spare to talk. Still, at night, he follows Ohno back to his room and passes out curled up so close to him that in the morning he aches from head to toe.

 

Nino blinks and suddenly it's the night before take-off and Sho is calling them for a final briefing before they board the ship in the morning.

Nino hasn’t been to a Sakurai Sho briefing in quite some time. Although Ohno is the captain, and by every rule book and regulation the captain should be in charge of briefing his crew, Ohno has never once showed the slightest inclination to conduct one.

“Sho-chan likes to do it,” Ohno had always said, waving off Nino’s teasing remarks. “Plus Sho-chan always gives us snacks. Don’t you like Sho-chan’s snacks?”

Despite Nino’s general ambivalence about snacks, he is more than pleased to see that Sho has not let Captain down by neglecting to provide an assortment of his very favorite snacks, even if this time Ohno does not seem to notice them.

“We’ve received the final report from CC,” Sho begins once everyone has taken their usual seat around the conference table. “The supernova in question is a Grade LSS.”

Aiba lets out a whistle. “A big one!” he says, leaning too far back in his chair before Jun pushes him back into place with a thump.

Sho nods. He keeps his gaze on the center of the room, but it’s painfully clear he’s trying to catch a glimpse of Ohno out of the corner of his eye, trying to judge Ohno’s reaction to the report.

“A big one,” he agrees. When Ohno remains silent, he continues. “Now according to the base projections, it should stay relatively tame until we reach our destination. Aiba-chan will get us there within 47 intergalactic hours of take-off and dock the procedural 510 kilometers away from the center. As you know, I will perform the final readings upon our arrival to see exactly what we are dealing with. With an LSS, we’ll be taking every precaution. Once I’ve assessed the status, it will be Nino’s turn.” He turns to Nino with a grin. “We’ve got the Disarment Flyer set up just the way you like it.”

“Super Mario screens?” Nino asks excitedly turning to Jun.

Jun gives him the thumbs up. “Don't let Bowser win.”

Sho laughs before his voice turns serious again, clearing his throat. “I know we are all a little nervous for this. The conditions of an LSS – are not the best we could have hoped for in our first mission back. But I am confident that we can do it. I am confident Nino can do it.”

Aiba and Jun nod in agreement. Ohno is still silent.

“Captain,” Sho says. “Is there anything you’d like to add?”

Ohno looks up from where he’s been staring at the tabletop, idly tracing patterns across it with the tip of his finger throughout Sho’s speech. He opens his mouth, closes it, then opens it again – but before any words can be formed, something interrupts him. A small, squeaky meow echoes across the room, followed by the appearance of tiny kitten. It jumps up onto the conference table, stumbling a little on wobbling legs before it regains its balance.

“Ahh!” Aiba shouts, scrambling forward.  
  
The kitten ignores him, padding happily in the other direction, right to Ohno.  
  
“Hi Yoshi,” Ohno says, smiling down as the tiny ball of fur pushes its forehead into the palm of his outstretched hand, purring madly.  
  
Nino turns to Aiba, who meets his look of surprise with an identical one, shaking his head vigorously as if to say “I didn’t tell him!”  
  
Beside them, Jun stands up, backing away from the table so fast that his chair crashes backwards on to the floor. “IS THAT A KITTEN?”


	25. Chapter 25

That night, neither of them can sleep.  
  
“Nino?” Ohno says into the darkness.  
  
Nino shifts instinctively towards the sound of Ohno’s voice. In the nighttime glow, he can just make out Ohno’s profile, the way his eyes are open, blinking steadily, as he stares up at the ceiling. "Yeah?”  
  
"Do you remember the first time I kissed you?” he asks.  
  
Nino shifts again, closer, nods against his pillow. He watches as Ohno's eyes open and close, open and close. “Yeah.”  
  
“I wanted to kiss you the first time I met you, probably,” says Ohno.  
  
“You took your time," Nino scolds, feels warm down to his toes at the slow, happy stretch of Ohno’s mouth.  
  
"I took just the right amount of time," Ohno says with surety.  
  
It's a short-lived happiness, his smile slipping away with his next breath. He turns over then, towards Nino, so that they’re face to face.  
  
“It’s hard,” he whispers, miserably. “It’s hard to let you walk away from me again.”  
  
Nino reaches out, finds Ohno’s hand in the bed between them and intertwines their fingers. It isn't enough, it shouldn't be enough, but even so he feels the way Ohno relaxes completely beside him, from only this one touch.  
  
"Go to sleep already," Nino chides. "We have a long day tomorrow."  
  
Ohno nods his head. He closes the last of the space between them and presses their lips together, softly, gently - and now Nino is the one who relaxes, completely.  
  
They fall asleep together. And for now, that is enough.

*

_Nino can see the officer approaching through the glass observation window of the training room._

" _Lieutenant Ninomiya,” he says when he's arrived, standing stiffly in the doorway. “Telephone for you.”_

_Nino nods. There is a communication panel on the other side of the door, just in front of the window. The call has been patched through. Nino watches the others, the rest of his crew, through the glass as he puts the receiver to his ear._

_“Hello?”_

_“Nii-chan?” his sister voice asks, tearfully._

_Nino swallows around the immediate, terrified lump in his throat._

_“It’s me,” he manages to say. Then, “What happened?”_

_“Mom is sick,” his sister says. “You need to come home.”_

_On the other side of the glass, Sho, Aiba, Jun and Ohno are laughing. Ohno is looking towards him, and he waves to Nino, eyes crinkled up with amusement, smile glittering._

_Nino summons all of his courage, all of his self-restraint, and smiles back in a way the he hopes is convincing. It must be, because Ohno turns away from him and back to the others._

_“I’ll be there soon,” Nino says to his sister and hangs up the phone._


	26. Chapter 26

After 47 intergalactic hours, Sho’s grim expression could be written off as exhaustion. It's the way he’s trying so hard to hide it - to hide it from _Nino_ \- that gives it away as something much different, something much more.  
  
Now that they’re securely in their appointed position, Sho has been hard at work on his finals readings, which means there is no doubt what he’s worrying about. Nino has more than a few questions about why Sho’s brow has furrowed so deeply, why he has nearly chewed off the end of his stylus, but he doesn't dare ask until Sho is ready to tell him.  
  
Finally, after what feels like hours, Sho sighs. He puts down his work and turns to Nino, the look on his face no more reassuring than it was before.  
  
“It’s worse than we thought. Bigger than we thought. The projections were off. We're too close.”  
  
“Too close?” Nino asks.  
  
“Way too close. It’s like it’s next to the door. We’ll have to have Aiba move us back at least another 200 kilometers.”  
  
Nino frowns. “That bad?”  
  
Sho nods. “If we don’t disarm it, it could be a lot worse.” He looks back down, despondently, at the calculations in front of him. “How do we tell Satoshi-kun?”

*

After much deliberation, which Nino witnesses first hand, Sho decided to deliver his official report with none of the usual formalities. When they arrives at the Captain’s Deck, Ohno clearly does not expect them yet. He looks startled when they enter, quickly straightening from the slouched position he’s been sitting in. Something glints from the palm of his hand as he hastily shoves it into his jacket pocket.

“Sho-chan?” he asks.

Sho cuts straight to the point. “It’s the same as the last one, Captain. A volatile one. How do you want to proceed?”

Ohno leans back in his chair as he reaches into his pocket, pulling out his pendant on its silver chain and Nino’s heart bumps against his ribcage as he feels the pendant dangling around his own neck start to warm against his skin.

“Satoshi-kun, it’s not too late,” Sho offers. “We can still call for back-up. Dream Fighter isn’t far behind us, from the World Space Patrol, and I can contact Captain Nishiwaki.”

Ohno’s focus snaps to Nino then. “Kazu,” he says, and he looks right into Nino’s eyes as he asks, “Can you do it?”

“I can do it,” Nino replies confidently, looks back steadily into Ohno’s dark eyes. He’s confident in himself, but more than that he is confident in Ohno.

Ohno nods, just barely, the pendant clenched tightly in his hand now and Nino can almost feel the way his own pendant has come to life beneath his jacket. Ohno looks to Sho. “Send him in.”


	27. Chapter 27

It’s not in any way usual for a ship’s entire crew to crowd themselves into the Release Hatch before mission takeoff, and yet Nino can’t say that he’s surprised to see them here, all queued up to see him off.

“Keep an orderly fashion,” he chides with a grin as he finishes strapping into his regulation heat-resistant, flame-retardant, life-monitoring mission gear.

“I’m first!” says Aiba, unnecessarily as he is in fact standing in the front. “Good luck, Nino-chan. Your kittens will be waiting for you!” he says, and though the teary-eyed look on his face harks back to an unhappy memory, the smile he gives Nino is more reassuring than he can say.  
  
"Take care of them until I'm back," Nino replies sternly and Aiba's smile only widens.  
  
Next up is Jun, who at first looks disconcerted by the mention of a _plural_ number of animals he was until now not aware were sharing his living space, but he soon recovers himself. He clasps a hand on Nino’s shoulder, tight enough to be a little painful. Nino taps two fingers against his forehead in salute and, without a word, Jun returns the gesture with his free hand. His grip on Nino's shoulder squeezes even tighter before he moves aside for Sho.  
  
Sho pulls Nino into a crushing hug.

“Satoshi-kun told me,” he whispers in a voice that only Nino can hear – and over Sho’s shoulder Nino can see Ohno, last in line, staring blankly into the space between them. “He said that you told him you loved him, and that’s the only reason he agreed to go.”  
  
Nino feels his face grow hot. “That’s – ” he starts, but Sho only shakes his head as he lets Nino go.

When he’s backed up, Nino can take in the full view of the whole pathetic lot of them. Sho beaming proudly, Aiba wiping his eyes surreptitiously with a cat-hair covered sleeve, and Jun stony faced in a way that means he’s feeling emotional but refuses to let it win out over his professionalism.  
  
“We’ll go get into position, Captain,” says Sho and Ohno gives a distracted nod as the three of them file out once again into the main part of the ship.  
  
When it's just the two of them, Ohno doesn’t move from his spot, the last one in a now non-existent line. Nino wants to say something, wants to do something, but he has no idea what. He stands there, tugging at the too hot collar of his mission gear, and waits. Ohno is in line after all. He should have come prepared.

Finally Ohno steps forward. Silently, he reaches out to tug at the chain peeking out from under Nino’s loosened neckline.  
  
“Now we’ll be together, even when we’re not,” Nino says, in reply to a question that Ohno isn’t asking.

Ohno remains silent. He tugs again, tugs the pendant free from Nino’s suit so that he can hold it in the palm of his hand. And just as they always do, the stars inside it begin to move, begin to shine. Only this time, when he pulls away, they don’t stop.  
  
“Come back to me soon,” Ohno says, quietly.  
  
“I will,” says Nino. “It won’t be five years this time.” It’s meant to be a joke, but it isn’t really, and neither of them laugh.  
  
Above them, the piercing _beep beep beep_ of the mission countdown starts to blare.

Startled, Nino takes an automatic step back towards the Hatch door, bumping into the release button. The door slides open behind him, revealing the long, fluorescent path to his Flyer.  
  
Nino glances down it, then back to Ohno.

"Captain," he says. He takes a deep breath. Around his neck, the pendant is still glowing on its chain. “I love you, Captain," he says.  
  
For a moment, Ohno’s expression is completely blank. Then, slowly, he smiles – smiles until it lights up his whole face. “I love you too, Kazu.”  
  
Even when Nino turns away from him to start down the long hallway, even when the doors swish shut behind him and click tightly into place, Nino can still see that smile.

Tucked back beneath the cover of his clothing, the pendant continues to spin.


	28. Chapter 28

It’s funny when Nino really thinks about it. That after everything – after all his training, after sky-high expectations and crushing disappointment, after years sitting behind a desk with no hope left – here he is, speeding towards the heart of a supernova.  
  
This is it. This is what he’s waited his whole life for.  
  
He presses the intercom button, grinning despite himself as the Super Mario theme trills to life before he’s patched through to the main ship. Jun never lets him down.  
  
“ _Ventus 4_ to _Tempestas_. Do you read me?” he says aloud into the cool oxygen of his helmet.  
  
Sho’s voice comes crackling through somewhere beside his ear. “Loud and clear, _Ventus 4_.”  
  
Nino checks the gauge beside him, typing in a few commands as tiny pixilated mushrooms bounce around his screen. “Reading shows me E minus 10 to prime position.”  
  
“Roger that, Nino,” says Sho. Then, “Stay safe.”  
  
Nino smiles into his helmet. “Thanks, Sho-chan.”  
  
The feel of the ship beneath him is entirely different than it is on the _Tempestas_ , the vastness of space so much more real now that he’s out in it alone. Through the thick windshield in front of him, Nino watches as the supernova swirls closer and closer, burning blindingly bright even through the heavily tinted glass. A thrill runs down his spine at the sight, a mix of excitement and anxiety. For all his time studying back on Earth, and again at the Space Station, Nino has never been this close.  
  
It’s beautiful.  
  
“ _Ventus 4_ is E minus 5,” he says into the intercom as his Flyer continues to accelerate through the building resistance approaching the outskirts of the explosion.  
  
Again there is crackling on the other end of the line, but this time Sho’s voice does not follow it. Nino adjusts the volume and tries again. “Sho-chan?” he asks.  
  
“Ni– no– ?”  
  
“Sho-chan, I’m losing you. _Tempestas_? I’m losing you. Can you read me?”  
  
He turns up the volume again, just in time for a burst of shrieking feedback to splinter through the transmission line. Nino jolts in his seat with only the security of his safety harness forcefully holding him in place. He reaches out and smacks the volume button again, cutting the feed entirely.  
  
It takes a few minutes for the ringing in Nino’s ears to subside. By the time it does, it’s E minus 2 and his heart is already heavy with trepidation when he carefully turns the intercom back on.  
  
“ _Tempestas_?” Nino tries, without much hope.  
  
The silence that follows is the most deafening sound than Nino has ever heard.  
  
Nino clasps the controls again, palms a little damper than he wants them to be. This is not totally unexpected. An LSS can easily cut out communication and the closer Nino gets the more his transmissions are at risk of interruption by the force of the supernova. But communication or not, he has a mission to complete. He takes a deep breath as the final minutes tick down.  
  
Disarment is simple in theory. Ideally, the CC, which is in charge of monitoring the status of all stars in the galaxy, can detect the chances of an explosive star death and send in a team to control it before it reaches supernova-level combustion. But out in space, no system is perfect. When a star comes to a violent end, that’s when Supernova Specialty Units come in – units like theirs –trained to get close enough to the supernova to neutralize it before it turns into a blackhole and mercilessly swallows up the galaxy around it.  
  
To do this, the Disarment Flyer that Nino is now strapped into has been built small and sleek, an extension of the main ship that at the hands of the Disarming Technician can fly dazzlingly close to the supernova. Withstanding the intense heat and pressure there, it can aim more directly at the star’s core for the best chance at efficiently completing the neutralization.  
  
E minus 1 and Nino’s Flyer has entered into the outer ring of this supernova. It anchors itself there, the anti-gravitational shield holding it in place so that it is not pushed or pulled by the explosion’s unpredictable energy.  
  
Nino reaches out for his consol, his years of training taking control despite the slightly sick feeling building in the bottom of his stomach – a feeling that could be written off as the understandable reaction of any human faced with something so much greater than humanity. Shaking it off the best he can, he aligns the Flyer’s sights using the system’s projections of the core location, and pulls the lever beside him to charge the neutralizer. When it’s at full charge, he does not hesitate – just pushes the bright red button labeled “GAME” in front of him. From the front of his Flyer, a yellow beam shoots forward, almost invisible in the intense glow of the dying star.  
  
For a standard supernova, this should be enough. The beam will reach the core and stop the explosion in its tracks, forcing an instantaneous cool down.  
  
Only this is not a standard supernova. In briefings, Nino has already been warned that it will take more than the usual procedure. Although he’s been given the top tier in neutralizing technology to go in with, one shot is still not enough. As his gauges register the unsuccessful attempt, the sad notes of a failed level sound from inside his helmet.  
  
Nino ignores them. He realigns the sights, recharges the beam, and hits the “GAME” button.  
  
The next jingle of failure seems louder in Nino’s ears. The supernova stands strong, and a quick look at his temperature gauges tells Nino he’s made no headway.  
  
Meanwhile, beneath him, already his Flyer is beginning to lose its anchor, trembling dangerously despite the anti-gravitational mechanisms. It’s getting hotter in the cockpit even against the strongest of heat shields. Nino blinks back the trickle of sweat dripping down into his eyes, down the bridge of his nose. His helmet is starting to steam up and he can feel it getting damp inside his heat regulated suit.  
  
Realign. Recharge. “GAME.”  
  
Nothing.  
  
Staring forward into the raging blast, Nino’s throat grows tight. According to Sho’s Official Mission Report, Toma had completed three of the four possible shots his Flyer was capable of into the core of his own LSS Grade supernova before it had turned on him, swallowed him whole without a trace.  
  
Is this what Toma saw before he died?  
  
_“Good luck,” Nino had said to him then, and meant it. “I’m counting on you to take care of these idiots for me.”  
  
Toma had grinned in response. “Yes, sir. I’ll keep a detailed report of their escapades for your perusal on our return.”_  
  
Like Toma, Nino has enough power to charge and fire four shots before it will be game over.  
  
He’s three down.  
  
It’s unimaginably hot. Despite the cooling mechanisms in his suit, already Nino’s vision is blurred by the uncontrollable amount of sweat pouring down his face. At this rate, he wonders how long it will be until he passes out from the temperature alone.  
  
_Focus,_ Nino tells himself as his gauges begin to sound the alarm, his Flyer swaying more and more precariously, treacherously, back and forth.  
  
Nino licks the sweat from his lips. He reaches up with a gloved hand to try to rub the condensation from the front of his helmet, racking his brain for a solution to his current predicament.  
  
His consol is shaking in place, two more alarms blaring to life as every screen begins to dissolve into static, when it comes to him – when he remembers.  
  
There’s only one thing to do, a contingency plan. If this ship even knows how to do it.  
  
Zero-G.  
  
Zero-G reverses the Disarmament Flyer's own anti-gravitational shields to shoot a high level of gravity into the core of the explosion in hopes it will set off a chain reaction that, somewhat against current scientific understanding, effectively causes the supernova to force itself into its own cool down. The theory it is based on remains a controversial one, shaky to begin with, but in practice it had sometimes worked – _sometimes_ being the key word. The problem was, if it didn’t work, the Flyer’s protective shields were down and it was immediately destroyed by the force of the supernova. To say that such liability made it unpopular among the upper levels of the CC was an understatement – as far as Nino knows it hasn’t been used in years. Even so, most ships are still capable of it, if only inadvertently.  
  
Nino has one shot left, but if he uses it and it fails, as it inevitably will, there’s no way he will have enough power left for Zero-G. There’s no way he will have enough power to get back to the main ship either. On the other hand, if he abandons his mission and retreats now, he may not make it back in one piece anyway. The neutralizing beams he sent out did not do their job, but they could easily have stirred up more trouble for him – for all of them. Nino knows that every minute he’s spent out here has allowed for the _Tempestas_ and its crew to be in harms way themselves, docked well within the destruction zone if this thing goes blackhole.  
  
Nino can’t allow that. With little time to waste thinking through all the potential consequences, he hastily types a command into the quivering consol. An icon of Princess Peach pops up on the screen, fuzzy and wobbling but still a friendly face when he needs one most.  
  
_Ninomiya-sama. You have selected ZERO-G. Intergalactic Safety Regulations remind you that ZERO-G can be DANGEROUS and should only be used as A LAST RESORT. ZERO-G may cause SUDDEN DEATH. ZERO-G is NOT RECCOMENDED for this mission.  
  
Are you sure you want to use ZERO-G?_  
  
Nino’s laugh comes out more of a dry sounding cough. Underneath the layers of his stifling mission gear, underneath his sweat-drenched uniform, he’s sure he can feel the spinning of his pendant, strong and steady against his heart. He flexes his left hand and his old injury twinges faintly as he readies himself. The intercom is as silent as ever, and for now Nino is glad – no one has to give the order, no one has to make this decision, but him.  
  
“This one's for you, Toma-kun,” he says as he selects “YES” and Princess Peach disappears before the screen switches off entirely.  
  
The whole Flyer jolts. Every alarm in the ship is screeching. Nino feels himself lurch forward and this time the harness isn’t enough to hold him back. His head cracks against the consol.  
  
There is white-hot pain, then blackness.  
  
*  
  
_“Nino, I looooove youuuu~” Ohno coos, pulling at Nino’s elbow until they’re nose to nose._  
  
_“You’re drunk,” Nino says accusingly. He pretends to shake off Ohno’s grip, but only half-heartedly._  
  
_“Drunk on you~” Ohno sing songs._  
  
_Nino rolls his eyes at that, but the truth is that now that they are this close, Nino can see that Ohno’s eyes are remarkably clear, and his breath smells suspiciously like nothing but melon soda._  
  
_“You’re not drunk!” Nino yelps, even more offended than before._  
  
_Ohno grins, mischievously. “Nope,” he agrees._  
  
_“Why?” Nino sputters, and now he really is struggling to shake Ohno off, even as Ohno holds him tighter. “It – it was a celebration for you! For your stupid birthday! You weren’t even drinking?”_  
  
_Ohno shrugs, but they’re still so close that Nino feels it more than sees it._  
  
_“I wanted to be sober,” Ohno tells him plainly. “For this.”_  
  
_He leans in and presses their lips together._  
  
_“I love you,” Ohno says again breathlessly when they break apart and this time he doesn’t even have the decency to pretend he’s drunk._  
  
_“Idiot,” Nino tries to say, but when he opens his mouth not a sound comes out. He clears his throat and tries again. “Idiot. You’re too sober to say things like that.”_  
  
_“That’s why I’m saying it,” Ohno insists, moves in again to brush that obnoxious grin against Nino’s lips, and Nino feels his toes curl inside his sneakers._  
  
_When Ohno pulls back, Nino follows him without meaning to, knocks himself off balance enough that he has to quickly reach out a hand to steady himself by clutching the front of Ohno’s shirt. Ohno looks like he wants to laugh, but doesn’t._  
  
_“I –“ Nino starts, then stops, the words he’s about to blurt out caught in the back of his throat. Beneath his fingertips he can feel Ohno’s heartbeat, how it quickens just a little as Nino struggles to speak._  
  
_“It’s okay,” Ohno says, his voice calm and steady even as his heart gives him away. “You don’t have to say it back. I already know that you love me,” he adds, smugly._  
  
_When Nino smacks at him, Ohno cackles happily. “So shy!” he muses, gleefully._  
  
_Nino scowls. “I liked you better when you were far away.”_  
  
_“No you didn’t,” Ohno says confidently, shaking his head._  
  
_“You’re too noisy,” Nino whines._  
  
_Ohno takes Nino’s hand from where it’s still curled into the front of his shirt. “I’ll be less noisy if you kiss me again.”_  
  
_Nino huffs loudly, turning his face away in a vain attempt to hide the smile he can’t hold back as it spreads across his face. “I have no choice then,” he says with exaggerated weariness._  
  
_He turns back, moves closer, but this time Ohno stops him when they’re only a breath apart._  
  
_“You love me,” Ohno says again, eyes gleaming as he grins from ear to ear._  
  
_“If this is what you get like when you have sugar now, I’m cutting you off,” Nino complains._  
  
_Ohno does laugh this time, a soft breathy chuckle. He reaches out to touch Nino’s cheek, his gaze now dark and sincere. Nino sighs against him and his heart picks up its pace to beat long with Ohno’s as Ohno closes the space between them, brushing their lips together sweetly._  
  
_“We can do other stuff besides kissing you know,” Ohno whispers conspiratorially against Nino’s mouth._  
  
_Nino groans in exasperation, pushing Ohno away from him as Ohno giggles uncontrollably._  
  
_“You creep,” Nino says, in mock-offense, then changes his mind and grabs Ohno by the front of his shirt, pulling him closer again. “What other stuff did you have in mind?”_


	29. Chapter 29

“Satoshi!”

Nino’s senses come back slowly, one by one. He can hear the whirring of the ship’s interior, hear the voice calling out “Satoshi, Satoshi” over and over. He can smell sweat and smoke. He can taste the metal tang of blood in his mouth. He can feel someone clutching at his arm. His head is throbbing so hard it feels as if it could split in two.

The grip on his arm tightens, forcefully, and Nino knows it’s Ohno even before he opens his eyes.

“Satoshi,” he says again, only now aware that it’s his own voice that he’s been hearing call out.

“I’m here,” Ohno mutters. “You did it. You did it.”  
  
Nino blinks his eyes open, ignores the painful protest of every bone and muscle in his body and surges up to cling to the front of Ohno’s uniform. Above him, Sho’s voice is coming in over the PA system as he reports back to the CC.

“LSS has been disarmed at 1723 hours. Lieutenant Ninomiya has returned to the ship. Flight Safety Officer on his way to assess status.”

As if on cue, Jun comes bursting onto the threshold, medical kit in hand.

“That was close!” he says, looking frazzled, a maniacal glint in his eyes. “That was too close! Captain, move aside.”

“My Flyer – “ Nino coughs as he lets himself be pulled away from Ohno and pushed back to the floor so that Jun can look him over.

“Almost in pieces! You probably shouldn’t be alive – although looks like you did your best trying to bash your head in,” Jun comments as he carefully inspects each of Nino’s injuries. “Do you remember anything?”

“I used Zero-G.”

“Because you’re an idiot!” says Jun, but he grins, showing too many teeth as he starts to enthusiastically wrap gauze around Nino’s head. Nino winces at the tightness of it, but doesn’t complain.

“I can’t believe you even remembered it existed!” Jun continues, both scolding and satisfied. “We weren’t supposed to put it in the new ships. They told me to take it out – but after Toma – it’s good thing I didn’t.”

Ohno is still holding on to Nino’s arm, fingers almost white against Nino’s scorched uniform, though he’s moved to make room for Jun and his first aid supplies.

Nino looks up at him. “It worked?” he asks.

Ohno nods, eyes glistening, smile genuine if not a little unsteadily.

“You did it, Nino!” Aiba’s voice comes from above, followed by a whoop of victory.

“Congrats, Nino!” Sho’s voice chimes in, sounding unmistakably proud.

Nino smiles, then winces as Jun pours a generous amount of disinfectant into an open cut on his forearm.

“Looks like you broke your leg,” says Jun without much sympathy. “I’ll have to reset it. This might hurt.”

That’s when Nino passes out again.

*

This time when Nino wakes up, it’s to a voice other than his own.

“Kazu.”

He opens his eyes to find himself back in his bunk, mummified almost completely from head to toe in thick white bandages. Ohno is sitting beside him, looking exhausted but calm.

He gives Nino a gentle smile. “Hi,” he says.

“Hi,” Nino replies with a grimace. The throbbing of his head has picked up where it left off now that he’s conscious again, slightly muted but not muted enough. “How long was I out?”

Ohno shrugs. “Only a few hours. Matsujun said it was normal. From the shock, and the pain killers.”

Nino tries to sit up, but immediately regrets it. Everything hurts, and his stomach churns dangerously. Ohno puts out a hand to lightly push him back into the bed.

“We’re on our way back,” he says, once Nino is settled again. “Aiba-chan thinks he can make it in 30 intergalactic hours. Sho-chan thinks he’s crazy.”

Nino shakes his head, as much as he can without vomiting. “He’s just worried about my kittens.”

Ohno laughs, reaching up to press a hand to Nino’s cheek, if only because it’s the last place left that isn’t covered in bandages.

“You did a good job, Lieutenant,” he says. Then, to Nino’s surprise, he smirks. “It wasn’t <i> _too_ </i> bad for your first mission.”

Nino rolls his eyes as much as he can under what he’s beginning to think is an inappropriate amount of gauze wrapped around his head. “Thanks, Captain,” he mumbles.

Ohno shifts in his seat, still smirking a little. His gaze flits across the room, then back to Nino. “Do you think there’ll be another? Mission, I mean.”

Nino’s answer is a cautious one and he watches closely for Ohno’s reaction as he says it. “Yes.”

When Ohno’s expression remains neutral, Nino decides to chance it.

“It was kind of awesome,” he says with honesty.

Ohno’s nose scrunches up with amusement and he gives Nino’s cheek an affectionate pet. Under his breath, Nino lets out what he hopes is an unnoticed sigh of relief, though he’s sure Ohno can hear it as he swipes his fingers across Nino’s face again.

“Were you worried?” he asks Ohno, hoping the question doesn’t give him away as the worried one.

Ohno blinks, and that’s all the hesitation there is before he replies.

“I wasn’t,” he says. “Because you told me you'd come back to me.”

He smiles again, and underneath his bruised ribs, Nino’s heart skips a beat.

“And that you love me.”

“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” Nino groans, trying to ignore the way his stomach has gone all aflutter.

Ohno’s smile doubles in size – and for the first time in a long time, in all the time since Nino has been reunited with him and probably even longer still, there is no shadow in it, no trace of grief or pain. He looks as boyish and young and _ <i>happy</i>_ as Nino has ever seen him.

“Oh-chan,” Nino says, trying not to sound as awed in the face of this smile as he is – as he always has been, and always will be. He hears himself say the words before he knows he’s thinking them. “Let’s run away together.”  
  
The look in Ohno’s eyes is radiant, more blinding than any supernova, LSS or otherwise. “Hawaii?” he asks hopefully.  
  
Nino laughs and doesn’t even mind that it makes his whole body hurt. “I thought you said I could pick,” he complains.  
  
“Ah,” says Ohno, nodding in agreement. “I guess I did.” Nino has considered a long list of places to run away to and Hawaii has always been last on that list. Yet, looking up at Ohno – into eyes now so clear, so trusting, so inexplicably unworried even after all they've been through, all because Nino loves him – suddenly the suggestion seems perfectly reasonable.  
  
“Hawaii it is,” Nino sighs as Ohno’s face lights up with victory. “But let’s take down some more supernovas first.”  
  
“Okay,” Ohno says, clearly trying not to pout.  
  
Nino feels giddy now, feels lighter than he’s felt in who knows how long. He reaches up and tries to pull Ohno to him, yelping when his body protests the overexertion.  
  
“Are you okay?” Ohno asks startled, and still, unhelpfully, only halfway to where Nino wants him to be.  
  
“I thought you said you weren’t worried, Captain,” Nino scolds.  
  
He pulls again, and Ohno comes easily the rest of the way, tumbling down into the bunk beside him.  
  
“I’m not!” Ohno insists, sincerely. “I’m just worried you won’t be able to kiss me.”  
  
“Captain!” Nino whines. “Are you going to kiss me or what?”  
  
Ohno laughs, and kisses him.

 

 

*~Feeling high, we're tumbling through the universe　We'll go say hello to Earth again!!~*


	30. EPILOGUE

**SEVERAL YEARS LATER…**

When Ohno retires, he is the youngest Space Captain ever to do so. It’s a fitting ending to a career that has been unusual from the very start.

“ _‘I Miss Earth!’:_ _Most Decorated Intergalactic Captain Retires from CC– First half-alien captain; Got his entire crew Medals of Honor,_ ” Sho reads aloud to them from the newspaper.

“I didn’t get them for you,” Ohno pouts. “You got them for yourselves.”           

“It’s okay, Captain!” says Aiba, patting Ohno on the back roughly enough to almost knock him over entirely. “We know!”

Jun reaches out to whack Aiba on the back of the head. “Don't knock over Captain,” he scolds before returning to the task of preparing for their crew to disembark.

“Sorry, Matsujun!” says Aiba contritely, rubbing gingerly at his head.

“I think I’ll like office work,” Sho says. He carefully folds up the newspaper he’s holding before stuffing it roughly into the disorderly order of his bag for safekeeping.

“Me too!” Aiba agrees with enthusiasm. “Then all the cats can come out of the vents!”

Jun looks up sharply, and to his credit, Aiba seems to realize he’s revealed something that he shouldn’t have.

“I THOUGHT YOU GOT RID OF THOSE CATS?!” Jun barks.

"But Matsujun, they're like family! And since Peach had her kittens, I –" Aiba trails off as Jun glares at him in ominous silence.  
  
Sho puts a comforting hand on Jun’s shoulder and somehow manages to leave it there without personal injury.  
  
“Aiba-chan, how about you take us to see them all now? You can introduce us to the new additions,” Sho offers diplomatically, as he painstakingly coaxes Jun out of his seat and towards the exit.   
  
Over Jun’s head, he shoots Aiba a meaningful look. Aiba’s answering grin is a touch too mischievous.  
  
“Sure!” he says, stepping forward to clasp Jun’s other shoulder amiably. “Matsujun, they're going to _love_ you! I bet they’ll even let you pet them!”  
  
Jun’s eyes widen by an almost indiscernible fraction, but Aiba and Sho don't miss it, leading Jun quickly and forcefully out of the room before it wears off.   
  
Nino, who has taken in this entire squabble with quiet amusement, hangs back as they leave. He watches as his crew walk away from him, watches them leave him behind. The last time this happened, Nino had spent five long years without them, promising himself not to think of them again. And when he’d been called up to re-join them, he hadn't been sure he could do it. He hadn't been sure he wanted to.  
  
Now, he knows he made the right decision, the _only_ decision – to be with them again.  
  
“Nino?” says a voice and Nino turns to find Ohno still in the room with him.  
  
Ohno has his full uniform on like the rest of them and his cap is crumbled in one hand, his hair a matted mess. In his other hand, he’s clutching a small picture frame and Nino can just make out the young faces of their crew, smiling brightly up from the photograph within it.  
  
“Ready to go, Captain Oh-chan?” Nino asks him.  
  
Ohno shakes his head and its then that Nino notices that his eyes are blurring with tears. Nino always forgets what a crybaby he is.  
  
“I’m not going to be Captain anymore, you know,” says Ohno, sounding a little nostalgic, a little relieved. “It’s just a nickname now.”  
  
Nino mulls this over for a moment, taking in Ohno’s emotional state. “Captains aren’t supposed to be so sentimental anyway,” he admonishes, teasingly.  
  
Ohno just sniffles.  
  
Nino reaches out, taking Ohno’s hand in his own. He links their fingers together.  
  
“Just regular Oh-chan then,” he announces, agreeably.  
  
Ohno wrinkling his nose. “I never liked that nickname either. It’s gross!”  
  
Nino can't help himself. He leans in and gives Ohno a smacking kiss on the cheek that makes them both giggle.  
  
“Too late! Should have thought of that before you decided to retire,” he declares. “Now lead the way, Oh-chan!”  
  
He holds on to Ohno’s hand tightly as Ohno leads them out the door.

 

*~Dance in the starship　終わらないparty　このままGo to Intergalactic~*


End file.
